Heartland - East Coast

Put it this way, I don't have any trouble remembering my wedding anniversary.

– Farmer Jeremy Williams on seeing his house burn down on his wedding day

I think I'm looking for your more thoughtful looking sheep...I think I prefer a more thoughtful looking chop.

– Gary McCormick surveys the contenders for Best Sheep at show day

It was born with brother Bob, eh. When we were brought up we were all brought up listening to Bob Marley and nothing else, just hard Bob Marley for you know...the young bit in our lives. But with our own culture, our own history...

– Dread John Heeney on how important Bob Marley was to Kiwi Māori Rastafarians

Nah ... they'd rather hire me, I'm cheaper.

– Tolaga Bay Horse Sports announcer Morris McDonald doesn't need a PA

Oh it's been very hard Gary, it's been very hard here. What makes it hard? Lack of work. A lot of the families here...300 families left Tolaga Bay...to go to the cities and work, and it's more or less just a skeleton...

– Tolaga Bay local Milton Brown, on the town's biggest problem in the early 1990s

When we were young we were taught "just enough for a meal" then we bring them ashore and leave them in a running creek to get the saltiness out of it...

– Kuia Ada Haig on kai moana traditions in her area when she was little

Oh I feel privileged, I feel totally privileged to be here as a photographer...I think the people here are really special.

– Local photographer Jill Carlyle on living and working in Tairāwhiti

You're wasted really, you're quite a natural Little Bo Peep...

– Farmer Graeme Williams is amazed at Gary's sheep picking abilities

There's a ruling, not anybody can have the moko. The person to have the moko has got to be in a senior line of the whānau, then the hapu of that whanau, not just anybody...but it's happening.

– Ngāti Porou kaumatua Tom Te Maro on the popularity of tā moko amongst Tairāwhiti youth

Nah, we're friends ... we're like the All Blacks ... we keep all the bad sportsmanship out of the road.

– Talented teen horse rider King Love on being mates with his competition

Television has tended to create an impression that the Cape is run down and depressed. Phil Aspinall in Tokomaru Bay pointed out that there have been a number of screen images of "poor" housing in which Māori live, while broken-down houses owned by Pākehā have not received any publicity.

– Gary McCormick writes about the East Coast, on page 73 of tie-in book Heartland (1994)

This is a region which I refer to as the "last frontier". Not because of any past lawlessness, but because I am unaware of any other part of New Zealand which seems so removed from the mainstream of Kiwi life, and where the raw edges of differing cultures and ideologies rub up against one another.

– Gary McCormick writes about the East Coast, on page 73 of tie-in book Heartland (1994)