50 Years of New Zealand Television: 7 - Taonga TV

Television (Full Length Episode) – 2010

This edition in Prime’s television history series surveys Māori programming. Director Tainui Stephens pairs societal change (urbanisation, protest, cultural resurgence) with an increasing Māori presence in front of and behind the camera. Interviews with broadcasters are intercut with Māori screen content. The episode charts an evolution from Māori as exotic extras, via pioneering documentaries, drama and current affairs, to being an intrinsic part of Aotearoa’s screen landscape, with te reo used on national news, and Māori telling their own stories on Māori Television.

Whenever we were portrayed on television the framework wasn't ours. We weren't defined by ourselves and by who we were in those times. We were framed very much with a western construct.
– Filmmaker Merata Mita, on early representation of Māori on television