Waka Huia - First Episode

Mehemea kei te kī tātou he Māori tātou. Kāore tātou e mōhio ki te reo. Ehara kē tātou i te Māori. / If we say that we're Māori, and if we do not know the language: we're no longer Māori.

– James Hēnare

Kei roto i taku hinengaro i roto i taku whatumanawa e pēnei ana 'Mā te whaimana rā ānō o te wahine, kātahi anō te iwi Māori ka maranga.' / My mind and my heart go 'It's only when women are recognised will Māori wake up!'

– Mira Szászy

Our elders, who had the stories we wanted, refused to talk on camera . . . We kept getting refusals until we took a punt and took our team and their equipment to Waitangi in February 1987. After a few knockbacks from some of the kaumātua [elders], Sir James Hēnare, the well-respected elder from the north, agreed to talk to us . . . Dame Mira Szaszy, President of the Māori Women's Welfare League, approached us and said, 'If it's good enough for Sir James, I'll talk — if you think I might make a contribution.'

– Whai Ngata, on the importance of getting James Hēnare to agree to an interview, in his backgrounder

I was in the back row during that performance … I shot out of the directors seat in the Outside Broadcast van to get backstage and join the group.

– Waka Huia director Tainui Stephens on both working on and performing in this episode

Waka Huia was conceived as a television taonga to be as precious as the name implied.

– Waka Huia director Tainui Stephens writing about the show, in his backgrounder