00:00
/
00:00
Moana Roa
Short Film (Full Length) – 1951
This 1951 National Film Unit production looks at the Cook Islands, and marks the 50th anniversary of the islands’ annexation in 1901. Unusually long (half an hour) for an NFU film, it shows history ("Vikings of the Pacific" through Captain Cook to New Zealand administration) and island life: spear-fishing, catamaran sailing, breadfruit gathering, weaving, dancing and singing. The islands are depicted as paradise guided by NZ paternalism, with the Islanders grateful recipients of modern communication, technology, health services, education, and... tinned meat.
Once a native priest told him when to plough and when to plant. Today he has an agricultural expert behind him to help get the best out of his land.– From the narration
Key Cast & Crew
Dick Crone
Russell Reid
Ashley Heenan
Ian Houston
Kenneth Firth
Charles Bennett
Music
Orchestral music composed by Ashley Heenan, and performed by the Alex Lindsay Orchestra
Categories
If you liked this, you might also like...
Kupe - Voyaging by the Stars
Features a pit-stop in the Cook Islands
Drums Across the Lagoon
A later NFU film on the Cook Islands
The Silent One
A clip from a feature film set in the Cook Islands
Tagata Pasifika - First Episode
The Cook Islands features in this
Mercury Lane - Series Two, Episode Two
Features Cook Island-Kiwi poet Alistair Te Ariki Campbell
Peter Gordon's Pacific Harvest
A cook in the Cook Islands
Pictorial Parade No. 124
More spear-fishing
Tagata Pasifika - Hine Moana: A Journey Home
Also features the Cooks
The Graffiti of Mr Tupaia
A short film about a Cook Islander in NZ
From Indonesia to India
More postwar aid
Loading Docs 2016 - 'Aka'ōu: Tātatau in the Cook Islands
Short documentary about Cook Island tattooing
Islands of Light - South Pacific Dance
Short film celebrating Polynesian dance and haka
Stranded Pearl
A modern film shot in Rarotonga
Atoll People
A 1970 documentary about migration from Tokelau