Libby Hakaraia
Lower Hutt-raised Libby Hakaraia begun her career as a 17-year-old, in a smoky Radio Waikato newsroom. A field report on the 1987 Edgecumbe earthquake scored her a work offer in Auckland. There the cub reporter encountered reactionary radio jocks’and editors, and covered Māori protests.
A cultural consciousness began to dawn. “It was brought to my attention by some Māori that I was mispronouncing place names, and shamefully that I was mispronouncing my last name.”
Veteran broadcasters Henare Te Ua and Haare Williams gave Hakaria an opportunity on new station Radio Aotearoa, where the 20-year-old was soon running a team of six journalists. A gig at Australia’s ABC (including reporting from the Barcelona Olympics) was followed by an OE crewing yachts.
Drawn back to Aotearoa, she paired up with Te Ua for a seven year stint on National Radio’s Māori magazine show Whenua. “Henare would take me all over the country: to marae, to hui of national significance, and to meet all manner of people. We broadcast from major events for Māoridom. He was a superb broadcaster and a wonderful mentor.”
In the late 90s Hakaraia began transferring 14 years of journalism to the screen. Starting as a researcher, she went on to direct segments of arts series Mercury Lane, associate produce state-of-the-Māori nation documentary The Truth about Māori, and wrote another award-nominated doco, Hell for Leather (1999) — about high-flying businesswoman Karroll Brent-Edmondson.
“I quickly realised that if I wanted to tell a Māori perspective on television I would have to find a like-minded Māori producer to work with. I was fortunate to meet Rhonda Kite.”
Paired with Kite at Kiwa Productions, Hakaraia went on to wrangle or direct dozens of TV documentaries, many dealing with Māori subjects. Among them were Pākehā Māori (a historical doco on Pākehā settlers who 'went native'), Whangai - Who Gets Baby (on Māori concepts of child-rearing via the wider whānau) and long-running arts series Kete Aronui.
Hakaraia now lives in Ōtaki, where she shifted from Auckland to realise her dream of setting up a production company. She has strong whānau connections in the North Island town. In 2004 Hakaraia founded Blue Bach Productions. The company's documentaries have ranged in subject from close to home (wildlife sanctuary Kapiti Island) to far afield (a European tour by Fat Freddy’s Drop).
She produced 26 episodes of Māori Television series Tatai Hono, which follows people discovering their Māori whakapapa (roots). Other topics include Anzac Day veteran stories and the songs of Āpirana Ngata.
On the challenges of being based away from the metropolitan centres, Hakaraia said in a 2012 NZ Herald interview: “It's about the ukaipo: the wellspring; the nurturing of creativity and the soul. The only hindrance is having to leave to go elsewhere to meetings.”
One way that Hakaraia and her romantic and business partner, producer Tainui Stephens, have fronted up to the tyranny of distance is by bringing audiences to them. In 2013 they founded the Māoriland Film Festival, an Ōtaki-based showcase of indigenous productions and talent. After serving as the festival director for a decade, Hakaraia handed over the leadership role to her niece and fellow founding member, Madeliene Hakaraia de Young.
Hakaria and Stephens also took things on the road, for Māori Television hit It’s in the Bag. The reboot of the Kiwi TV classic travelled to 70 towns across five seasons, as presenters Pio Terei and Stacey Morrison bartered with contestants for te moni, or te kete. Hakaraia argued that the show marked New Zealand’s largest outside broadcast production besides Sky Sports, and was proud of its contribution to Māori and regional screen culture.
“We do the series on the smell of an oily rag with 33 people in our crew, including some incredibly experienced crew in film and television and some absolute newbies. We use it as both a training ground for new people and also to push us all into creating the best we can in small towns around New Zealand.”
Many of the It's in the Bag went on to work on live music shows My Country Song, My Reggae Song. and My Party Song.
Short film The Lawnmower Men of Kapu (2011) marked Hakaraia’s dramatic directing debut. She also penned the story about a nephew trying to wrangle his three lawnmowing uncles to tidy up unruly marae grounds. It travelled internationally to indigenous film festivals and won the People’s Choice prize at the 2012 Wairoa Māori Film Festival.
Hakaraia described it as her most challenging project to date — “because it involved my family and was shot at my marae here in Ōtaki. I didn't want to make the type of mistake that saw me run out of town! As it is my whānau and hapu have now claimed the film as all of theirs which makes me very very humbled and proud.”
Later she was part of the producing team on decade-spanning feature drama Cousins. Two of the many shorts she has produced have been selected for the Berlin Film Festival: Hawaikii (2006) and Kehua (2009).
In 2024 Hakaraia was awarded the Merata Mita Fellowship by the Sundance Institute in the United States, supporting indigenous women to direct their first feature film. Having been given the fellowship, she intends to “be bold and aim for new heights in storytelling". Hakaraia is currently developing her debut feature film Taniwha, which she describes as “New Zealand’s first authentic Māori creature feature”.
She has been a board member of both Ngā Aho Whakaari and SPADA. In 2014 she was a finalist in the national Women of Influence Awards. She has also produced promos for Tourism NZ and Māori Tourism.
Hakaraia is passionate about local and indigenous storytelling, and using contemporary tools to reach wider audiences. She argues that Māori filmmaking provides "a way to empower our communities. It is a process that our culture understands inherently. After all, we are merely lending images to stories we have always shared”.
Profile updated on 25 January 2024
Sources include
Libby Hakaraia
‘Our Team', Blue Bach Productions website. Accessed 25 January 2024
Sarah Daniels, ‘Twelve Questions with Libby Hakaraia’, (Interview) - The NZ Herald, 27 November 2012
‘Libby Hakaraia honoured with the Merata Mita Fellowship’, (Radio interview), RNZ National. Loaded 25 January 2024. Accessed 25 January 2024
'Lowdown: Resignations, Residencies & Recognition', The Big Idea website. Loaded 25 January 2024. Accessed 25 January 2024