Merata: How Mum Decolonised the Screen

Merata Mita argued forcefully that the voices of Māori and of women were sorely lacking on-screen. Best known for Springbok tour documentary Patu!, the straight-talking director and actor ran an indigenous filmmaking programme in Hawai'i, and inspired indigenous directors in Aotearoa and abroad. After Mita passed away in 2010, her youngest son Heperi began making a film about her — discovering new sides to his mother while trawling through old films and talking to his siblings. The feature-length documentary debuted at the 2018 NZ International Film Festival and at Sundance, and later sold to Netflix.

The public is conditioned to accept negative images of the Māori. The values and worth of Māori people are continually overlooked.

– Merata Mita in an interview with Helen Martin, The Listener, 14 October 1989, page 31

Key Cast & Crew

Mike Jonathan

Cinematographer

Heperi Mita

Director, Narrator

Tama Waipara

Composer

Merata Mita

Subject

Tearepa Kahi

Creative Producer

Chelsea Winstanley

Producer