Tagata Tangata 6 - Ngāi Tātou / Family (Episode Six)

At the time of the overstayers issue, more ex-British army people from Rhodesia and South Africa were allowed to settle here permanently in three months, than all Pacific peoples put together in the previous five years. This was in effect a white-only immigration policy and to us in [Ngā] Tamatoa it was totally objectionable. Because at the end of the day Māori and Pacific peoples, we are all one family; we are all Polynesians and we shouldn't forget it.

– Author and former Ngā Tamatoa member Donna Awatere Huata

We need to teach children in our own ways. We need to teach children about our own things, Only when we begin to take over the education of our own children and not relegate it to another society teaching our children, then we are able to recapture the lifeline of our people. If we fail to do that, and if you have societies that also fail to support that, then what you are really talking about is nothing less than genocide; it's a slicing of a race so that they have no continuity of consciousness.

– Poka Laenui, an advocate for indigenous Hawaiians

They [Māori presenters] should be on New Zealand television, in the land where Māori language had been heard for well over a thousand years. There should be a Māori voice on the television airwaves.

– Derek Fox, producer of Māori news programme Te Karere

Giving our children family and tribal names reinforces their connection with the past, and it's the knowledge of the past which will equip the next generation as they — like their ancestors — start on their own journey into uncharted waters.

– Tagata Tangata presenter and co-writer Ramona Papali'i, near the end of the episode