Te Rua

Nanny Matai (Nissie Herewini – with stick) along with other cast and extras in a scene from Te Rua. Dominion Post

A still from the movie Te Rua. Dominion Post.

Arrest after the siege: from left to right, Hori Ahipene, Whetu Fala, unidentified actor (as policeman), Peter Kaa and Maria Fitzi (facing camera). Photograph by Andrezj Nowakowzki.

Variously praised as a major step forward in indigenous cinema, attacked for overambition, and little screened, Te Rua marked Barry Barclay’s impassioned follow-up to Ngati. This story of stolen Māori carvings in a Berlin museum sees Barclay plunging into issues of control of indigenous culture he would return to in book Mana Tuturu. Feisty activist (Peter Kaa) and elder lawyer (screen taonga Wi Kuki Kaa) favour different approaches to getting the carvings back home. Barclay and his longtime producer John O’Shea had their own differences over Te Rua’s final cut.