Swoop Of The Cormorant: One Family’s Sacrifice

PUBLICITY RELEASE
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31 2010

Swoop Of The Cormorant: One Family’s Sacrifice

Kingi Turner often wondered what life would have been like if his father had come home from the war.

He was just a baby when Hone Turner died of wounds in Italy during World War II; his mother never really recovered from the loss and he was brought up by relatives.

Turner’s story is told in SWOOP OF THE CORMORANT, a feature-length documentary about one family’s incredible sacrifice in World War I and II, which screens on Maori Television at 9.30 PM as part of the channel’s all-day ANZAC Day coverage.

The Freckle Films production traces the descendants of Mata and Hori Hetet, of Ngati Maniapoto, who had more than 40 grandchildren and great-grandchildren who went to war.

Director Alison Carter says the documentary – which takes its name from the fighting formation Maniapoto warriors used when they went to war – took nearly 18-months to research because so many of the men changed their names and lied about their age to get into the army.

It was all worth it, she says.

Having tracked down the descendents of these soldiers, SWOOP OF THE CORMORANT exposes the scars that war leaves on the next generations and shares their stories, sometimes for the first time, for their families to hear.

“The Hetet family’s story is a microcosm of the iwi experience during the wars,” says Carter. “It is close to everyone’s heart.”

Maori broadcaster Hone Edwards was involved in the documentary from the beginning. He interviewed family members in the Waikato /Waitomo area and fronts the documentary. He says SWOOP OF THE CORMORANT is a story that needed to be told.

“It is an amazing contribution for one family. They wanted to go because it started as an adventure but it turns out to be the nightmare from hell.

“In some cases we had sons going away with their fathers in World War II and quite a few were badly, badly maimed.”

Edwards says the daughter of one veteran made the point of how her officer father threw away his medals because of the lack of help from the government gave to Maori after the war.

“He was a farmer who trained at a military school in England, fought for his country and then returned with an English rose. He always hoped the government would recompense him for that and it never happened,” says Edward.

For Kingi Turner, the documentary was a humbling reminder of his family’s sacrifice.

He also had at least four uncles go to war and says, growing up in Te Kuiti, that it was always known that so many of the wider whanau went away to fight for their country.

“It was so beautiful to see it all come together,” he says.

“It was a revelation in so many ways and it counted as a blessing for our younger generations and those still to be born because now we have a record for our family.

“It is very much an honour.”
Tune in to Maori Television on Sunday April 25 at 9.30 PM to share the incredible story of what is surely one of the greatest war efforts in New Zealand in SWOOP OF THE CORMORANT.
For the fifth year running, Maori Television will devote its entire 17-hour schedule to ANZAC Day 2010, including coverage of key memorial ceremonies, as well as films, documentaries, veteran interviews and discussions.

Ends

© Scoop Media