Tangata Whenua - Waikato

Tangata Whenua broke the monocultural mould of New Zealand television. It gave Māori an opportunity to speak for themselves about their lives. It went some way to informing Pākehā New Zealanders about Māori attitudes and values, it whetted a Māori audience's appetite for more documentaries reflecting Māori viewpoints, and it opened the way for later programmes, such as Koha and Te Karere, produced by Māori.

– Tangata Whenua interviewer and co-writer Michael King, in his 1999 book Being Pākehā Now

Like Broken Barrier, the series broke new ground: it put Māori perspectives on the small screen, in most cases without Pākehā interpretation. It was hoped by Māori all over the country that this series would be a forerunner to a greater Māori presence on TV, but it was not going to be that easy.

– Filmmaker Merata Mita on Tangata Whenua, in 1992 book Film in Aotearoa New Zealand,page 46

The Tangata Whenua series was a major milestone for me, both personally and professionally. It took me back to one part of my roots. It also disciplined us to search for ways to make the technology of filmmaking subordinate to what people had an urgency to say.

– Excerpt of an article written by Barry Barclay for Tu Tangata, 1977

There have been changes. When we were making Tangata Whenua we had a hard enough battle getting Māori expressed on screen in any form. Now television runs items in Māori without a voice-over translation or subtitles. Yet since Tangata Whenua no Maori (Merata Mita excepted) has been given an opportunity to make a 50 minute film. The chisels may again be in the hands of the carvers. Māoris are using brush and canvas, but the camera remains hidden.

– Barry Barclay on changes in the standing of te ao Māori on television in the 1970s, in Tu Tangata (1977)

I think it’s natural for them to want to know something about Māori:, after all they are Māori. The difficulty is to decide whether it should be taught at home by the elders, or taught at school in a Pākehā timing. But the point is this, if the parents aren’t going to teach them, well, what are the kids going to do?

– A teacher of Māori studies at Morrinsville College

Waikato river is very similar to the Ganges, because it’s tapu, and it's more than tapu to us becase its our cleansing water, and used for everything that we know.

– Offscreen voice, early in this documentary

The Waikato River is the bloodstream for the life of the Waikato people. They take their name from it. it was a source of food earlier days. It was a means of rapid transport, travel and communications. It is also a resting place of spirits

– Narrator Michael King, early in this documentary

There is a proverb about the river: "Waikato taniwha rau, he piko he taniwha; Waikato; river of a thousand bends, and on every bend, a taniwha.” 

– Narrator Michael King recites a poignant proverb

Watching the Waikato episode, marae in varying forms dominate as settings. The story of the construction of Tūrangawaeawae Marae at Ngāruawāhia is threaded through the programme, and we see a poukai (annual Kīngitanga hui held on different marae in the Waikato tribal area) at Tauranganui Marae at the mouth of the Waikato River.

– Paul Diamond, his backgrounder on this show

Alongside these elders are the younger generation, struggling to learn Māori at a time when the language wasn't commonly taught in schools or universities. 

– Paul Diamond, his backgrounder on this show

[I approached] both television programmers and Māori leaders to effect a liaison whereby in primetime (made easier by single channel TV and the propriety of a 7 p.m. Sunday timeslot) first one and then a series of documentaries would give the Māori people themselves a voice about many issues they had been reluctant to discuss with Pākehā.

– Tangata Whenua producer John O'Shea, in his 1999 book Don't Let It Get You - Memories - Documents