Tagata Tangata 4 - Tangata Whenua / People of the Land (Episode Four)

This Tagata Tangata episode looks at the effects of colonisation across Polynesia, and the separation of Polynesian people from their lands. Strong-arm tactics such as threats to the family of a Tahitian princess, gunboat diplomacy over sandalwood debts in Hawai’i and the effects of unsanctioned nuclear testing are all told. There are also stories of people separated from their land, including Hawaii's Great Māhale in 1848, mass arrests at Bastion Point, and loss of land ownership across Polynesia. There are many tales of greed, but also tales of hope for native peoples working to undo the adverse effects of the past.

Māori are descendant from the gods, the ancestors, right down to the present day; and that connection connects them to the natural world, and the connection is held together and mediated by the forces of tapu and pono, the sanctity of the ancestors who won the land, who sanctified it with their blood, with their bones that were buried in the urupā.

– Māori academic and writer Ranginui Walker

Key Cast & Crew

Ken Saville

Sound Recordist

Poumau Tialetagi Papali'i

Producer

Alison Carter

Writer, Second Unit Director

Peter Janes

Cinematographer

Hone Edwards

Director

John Maynard

Producer