Māori Television hit the airwaves on 28 March 2004. This collection demonstrates how the network has staked its place as Aotearoa's indigenous broadcaster. The kete is overflowing with tasty morsels — from comedy, waiata, hunting and language learning, to award-winning coverage of Anzac Day. Māori Television HOD of Content Development Nevak Rogers backgrounds some MTS highlights here, while Tainui Stephens unravels the history of Māori on television here: choose from te reo and English versions of each backgrounder. 

This collection celebrates women and feminism in New Zealand — the first country in the world to give all women the vote. We shine the light on a line of female achievers: suffrage pioneers, educators, unionists, politicians, writers, musicians, mothers and feminist warriors — from Kate Sheppard to Sonja Davies to Shona Laing. In her backgrounder, TV veteran and journalism tutor Allison Webber writes how the collection helps us understand and honour our past, asks why feminism gets a bad rap, and considers the challenges faced by feminism in connecting past and present.

Kōrero Mai used a soap opera (Ākina) as a platform to teach conversational te reo Māori. In this fifth season opening episode, Tini (Stephanie Martin) and Quinn (Kawariki Morgan) deal with the aftermath of the previous season's climactic car crash. Presenter Piripi Taylor introduces phrases like 'Ana e tā' (yeah man!). This season of the award-winning Māori TV show had 120 episodes, screening from Monday to Wednesday, then repeated. The directors are actors Rawiri Paratene (Whale Rider) and Rachel House (Hunt for the Wilderpeople), and cinematographer Simon Raby.

Ngāti Porou leader, land reformer, politician and scholar Sir Āpirana Ngata (1874-1950) is celebrated in this series about leading Māori figures, produced by TVNZ's Māori Department. Ngata was seemingly ordained for greatness from birth. The first Māori university graduate, he was an MP and a Minister of Native Affairs, and a firm believer that Māori had to live alongside Pākehā and learn from them. Reforms he instituted helped his people retain their lands and language; and he led a cultural renaissance that revitalised action songs, waiata and haka.  

English pastor John Catmur moved to New Zealand in 2007 after getting a "call from God". Working and living in South Auckland amongst a big Māori population, he was inspired to learn te reo. Says Catmur in this Loading Doc: "When I stood to speak a hunger was fulfilled within my heart. A hunger I never knew I had." Director Kayne Ngātokowhā Peters made this short te reo documentary to help change people's perceptions, so they could see the Māori language as a "valued treasure". Peters was a presenter on TVNZ channel Kidzone, before he did two years reporting for Marae.

Tangata Whenua was a groundbreaking six-part documentary series that screened (remarkably in primetime) in 1974. Each episode chronicled a different iwi and included interviews by historian Michael King with kaumātua. These remain a priceless historical record. The Feltex Award-winning script was by King and director Barry Barclay. The NZBC said the series had "possibly done more towards helping the European understand the Māori people, their traditions and way of life, than anything else previously shown on television". Paul Diamond writes about Tangata Whenua here.

This six-part Māori Television series documents the experiences of six Māori language students from around the country, on a three-week cultural field trip to Beijing, China. The teenagers take their own cameras to record their experiences. They attend a local high school, live with Chinese families, and take in the local sites and sounds. The series is in Te Reo Māori, with English sub-titles. In this episode, the students learn how to get around Beijing using the local transport, they visit schools and find out about calligraphy, and they tour Beijing’s legendary Forbidden City.

This six-part Māori Television series documents the experiences of six teenagers from Māori language schools in Rotorua, on a three-week cultural field trip to Santiago, Chile. The students take their own cameras to record their experiences. They are hosted by the Montessori school Colegio Pucalan and local families, and take in the sites of the Chilean capital. The series is in Te Reo Māori, with English sub-titles. In this episode, the students learn about Chilean sports, sample different cuisines, and visit the port of Valparaiso.