Ngā Taonga Programme Celebrates Matariki: Tau Hou 2017

23 May 2017

Media Release

Ngā Taonga Programme Celebrates Matariki: Tau Hou 2017

Starting 31 May and running through to the end of July Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision is presenting a programme of twenty-eight documentaries and feature films centred around Matariki. The programme has been designed to celebrate and reflect on our unique culture and heritage. It also showcases many remarkable people who have contributed to the richness and diversity of that culture including land-rights campaigner Eva Rickard, kuia Dame Whina Cooper, cartoonist Murray Ball, actor/satirist John Clarke and historian, Dr Michael King.

Parts of the Matariki programme are being presented in partnership with Wellington’s City Gallery and the Turnbull Gallery. In support of the current City Gallery exhibition, Colin McCahon: On Going Out with the Tide are the documentaries Te Matakite o Aotearoa, which is about the 1975 Māori Land March, and Bastion Point: Day 507. Dame Whina Cooper and politician Donna Awatere are just two of the subjects of documentaries in support the Turnbull Gallery exhibition, Wāhine: Beyond the Dusky Maiden, which starts in Wellington on 6 June.

Diane Pivac, Group Manager Ngā Taonga Outreach and Engagement says, "One of the standouts in the Matariki programme is the Tangata Whenua series, a groundbreaking six-part documentary from 1974 that has not been publicly screened since 2009. Historian Michael King was the writer, interviewer and narrator. It was the first time a Māori perspective of life in New Zealand was explored and it remains highly relevant today."

“On the lighter side, the wonderful Footrot Flats movie, with characters created by the late, great Murray Ball and featuring the voices of two other exceptionally talented New Zealanders, John Clarke and Billy T James, is a tribute to their contribution to our filmmaking heritage," says Diane.

The full programme can be found in our website at http://www.ngataonga.org.nz/events

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