Here to Stay uses New Zealand personalities to examine key settler groups that make up the Kiwi tribe. Each show mixes personal stories with a wider view, as the presenter sets out to discover what traits and icons their ethnic group contributed to the NZ blend. In the first (of two) series Michael Hurst, Theresa Healey, Ewen Gilmour, Jackie Clarke, Frano Botica and Bernadine Lim explore the English, Irish, German, Scot, Croatian, and Chinese stories respectively. Each episode includes identity reflections from a chorus of well-known Kiwis.  

This 1978 National Film Unit documentary provides a potted history of settler groups that came to New Zealand from Europe. Archive material and narration covers the colonials. Then visits are paid to the German-descended Eggers, tobacco growers from Moutere, and newly arrived French bakers and Dutch dairy farmers. Aptly for a film directed by actor and future winemaker Sam Neill, the film drops in on an Italian play and the Babich family of Dalmatian winemakers. Neill worked at the NFU in his 20s, around the time of his breakout acting role in Sleeping Dogs (1977). 

This edition of TV2’s Sunday documentary slot explores the life of “pioneer woman” Lukre Martinovich. Martinovich departed the Dalmatian coast for New Zealand in 1907, as a 21-year-old mail-order bride. She recounts experiences starting a family of 12, while scraping kauri gum in Northland’s ‘black swamp’. A visit to Otamatea Kauri Museum spurs memories, and some of her 160 descendants gather at Ruawai Bowling Club to celebrate her birthday. Dancing stops for Lukre (also known as Lucy) to follow a punt on the races on the radio, with the local priest on hand as support.