To Love a Māori

To Love a Māori was the last feature from legendary filmmaking couple Rudall and Ramai Hayward (Rewi's Last Stand). The romance explores racist attitudes in the early 1970s to relationships between Māori and Pākehā — and the challenges experienced by young Māori moving to the city. Tama (played by trainee teacher Val Irwin) heads to Auckland from the East Coast, with his brother Riki. Tama meets Penny (Marie Searell), a Pakehā dance student, and romance blooms after they dance. Penny's rich parents are aghast. Made on a low budget, To Love a Māori was the first New Zealand feature shot in colour.

Note: This title is still to be digitally preserved by Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision.

Mr Hayward's film is so enjoyable to watch that it is easy to disregard the fact that only a few of the cast have had any experience in acting . . . The best thing about Mr Hayward's film is that it depicts with fidelity an important phase of life and experience in 'the largest Polynesian city in the world'. This film was yelling out to be made.

– Writer Geoffrey Webster in The Whakatane Beacon, 9 February 1972

Key Cast & Crew

Val Irwin

As: Tama

Marie Searell

As: Penny

Desmond Locke

As: Penny's father

Toby Curtis

As: Tama's father

Rudall Hayward

Director, Producer, Writer

Ramai Hayward

Producer, Writer, As: Mrs Hemi (Tama's aunt)