Daughters of the Pacific

This 2005 documentary tells the story of four New Zealand-born women whose parents come from villages in Samoa, Tonga and Niue. Social worker and photographer Emily Mafile'o, students and mothers Pule Puletaua and Lanni Liuvaie, and playwright Louise Tu’u face the challenges of combining two cultures to forge an identity in Aotearoa — from family, language, food and religion, to flatting and hair cutting rituals. As narrator Sandra Kailali says, "to be true to both is hard work: success in one often comes at a cost to the other." 

I think for Pacific Island women they’d probably get the shock of their lives that I was single at the age of 30 without a child, but I don’t think that they’d ever presume that I’d have a degree, let alone three degrees.

– Emily Mafile'o

Key Cast & Crew

Jennifer Lee Lewes

Producer

Margot Francis

Editor

Caroline Harker

Director

Louise Callan

Writer

Louise Tu'u

Subject

Lanni Liuvaie

Subject