"We are New Zealand - it's you and I" sings Minuit's Ruth Carr as images of everyday New Zealanders flash up on the screen. Directed by band member Paul Dodge, Minuit's video for 'Aotearoa' is a nostalgic trip through the archives — a celebration of NZ history starting with images of people and places, including Rangitoto, the Pink Terraces, Greytown's historic Revington's hotel through to Sir Edmund Hillary, Aunt Daisy and Ernest Rutherford, as well as national tragedies, protests and hikois — and even the six o'clock swill gets a look in.

Launched for 2014's Māori Language Week, the NZ Music Award-nominated video for 'Aotearoa' is a showcase of Kiwi scenery and musical talent, led by main vocalist Stan Walker. 'Aotearoa' began when TV producer Mātai Smith, aware 1983’s 'Poi-E' was the last te reo song to hit number one, thought it might be nice to repeat the feat (in the end he had to settle for number two). Walker wrote the track with his Mt Zion co-star Troy Kingi and singers Vince Harder and Ria Hall. Hall calls the result “a song to celebrate our nation, our landscape, our uniqueness, our language and our people”.

In this fifth season episode of Māori Television’s long-running hunting show, presenter Howie Morrison Junior heads to the Central North Island’s Rangitikei region. First Howie pulls on the moleskins and tweeds and goes shooting at Rathmoy for pheasant. Then it’s off to Whio Lodge with Dan Steele, where they try to source the main ingredient in goat curry, throw axes, meet cave wētā and whistle up the lodge’s namesake. Howie also meets trapper Leon Stratford, helping protect whio and kiwi. Adam Rowbotham's tip of the week is bacon and eggs cooked in a brown paper bag.

In this fifth season episode of Māori Television’s hunting show, presenter Howie Morrison Jnr slings his rifle over his shoulder and heads to Taranaki to accept Matt Newton’s invitation to sample the region’s hunting experiences. First up, he sidesteps the bush bashing and heads into the skies with Precision Helicopters. After whakapapa stories over tea — World War II fighter pilots and deer recovery — the pair are inspired to go out and shoot down goats and stags. Then it’s wild bull in the scrub. ‘Today’s tip’ looks at bowhunting with Kevin Watson.

Described by co-creator Jamaine Ross as a sketch show "told from a brown perspective", this Māori Television series pokes the taiaha into life in Aotearoa. Hosted by improv trio Frickin Dangerous Bro – Ross (Māori), Pax Assadi (Persian) and James Roque (Filipino) – the show adds a multicultural 21st Century update to the skit traditions of Billy T James and Pete and Pio. This first episode mines comedy from white people, brown mums, hangi, sports reporting, subtitles, service station staff, and sat nav. NZ Herald’s Gracie Taylor called it "smart, funny, relevant and insanely relatable".

In this episode from the fifth season of Māori Television’s long-running hunting show, presenter Howie Morrison Junior meets Department of Conservation ranger Eddie Te Kahika — then choppers into the Kaweka ranges in the Hawkes Bay with veteran pilot Spencer Putwain, for some aerial culling. Eddie discusses the win-win kaupapa of the culling: protect the beech forest from collapse caused by browsing, and keep the deer in fit shape for hunting. Then Howie stalks sika deer with Spencer’s partner, Sam Rust. The tip of the week is having an EPIRB (emergency locator beacon).

Filmed in 2002, this documentary observes a group of people living on the streets of Wellington. After being moved on from Cuba Mall, the group makes their home by the Cenotaph (near Parliament) and sets up a "village of peace". Led by the dreadlocked 'Brother' they attempt to gain an audience with the government; their self-proclaimed marae provokes police, public, politicians and media. Reviewer Graeme Tuckett called the film a "landmark in New Zealand documentary making". Brother (aka Ben Hana) later gained a local profile as Courtenay Place's 'Blanket Man'.

This staple of Māori Television has been on the hunt for over a decade. Host Howard Morrison Junior’s amiable way with his fellow hunters as they head to the best spots to stalk deer or pigs, connected with camo-clad viewers. No hyped up Bear Grylls types here: just good, keen Kiwi hunters getting kai the old-fashioned way for their whānau, bagging trophies or helping protect native wildlife. In the eighth season (2012) Morrison handed the presenter's rifle to ex-rugby star Matua Parkinson; ex All Black Glen Osborne took over for the eleventh season, before Morrison's return.

A request from Holland's National Museum of Ethnology to acquire a Māori war canoe (waka taua) as a permanent exhibit resulted in master builder Hector Busby being commissioned to craft one. Jan Bieringa’s film looks at the history of waka, and follows the project from construction and launch, to the training of a Dutch crew and arrival in Holland. The first waka to permanently leave New Zealand shores makes a surreal sight on the canals of Abel Tasman’s birthplace. Onfilm reviewer Helen Martin praised it as "a spe­cial film about a very spe­cial project."

Keen to discover "the real essence" of his country, filmmaker Ryan Fielding spent two months travelling around New Zealand with camera in hand. The short film that Fielding came up with is a mosaic of Aotearoa and its people, dotted with moments of beauty and celebration, but precious few signs of wealth: rundown shops, quiet pubs, children larking around in the ocean, and a number of locals who appear slightly worse for wear.