50 Years of New Zealand Television: 7 - Taonga TV

Television (Full Length Episode) – 2010

This edition in Prime’s television history series surveys Māori programming. Director Tainui Stephens pairs societal change (urbanisation, protest, cultural resurgence) with an increasing Māori presence in front of and behind the camera. Interviews with broadcasters are intercut with Māori screen content. The episode charts an evolution from Māori as exotic extras, via pioneering documentaries, drama and current affairs, to being an intrinsic part of Aotearoa’s screen landscape, with te reo used on national news, and Māori telling their own stories on Māori Television.

We'd managed to talk the powers that be of television to say simple greetings at the beginning of the news and the weather, to say 'kia ora'. And it caused an outrage. People were absolutely offended...
– Rawiri Paratene, on reaction to te reo on the news in the 1970s