The Women of Pike River

These women are not weeping widows. They're fighters, and really engaging characters. I think people will be surprised by the journey they have been on.

– Director Mary Durham, in an interview with Stuff, 1 August 2015

I think women have a different way of looking at things. If we could get their responses, we could get a more raw story. Not that men don't have feelings, but women have a different way of expressing them. We are more open.

– Director Mary Durham, in an interview with Stuff, 1 August 2015

Twenty-nine men are laying down in a dirty, cold, wet hole, and nobody has been held accountable. They're not just a number.

– Pike River mother Sonya Rockhouse on the disaster

We were just standing there collecting our thoughts and I remember thinking how quiet it was, and how could such a disastrous thing have happened in this beautiful spot?

– Kath Monk recalls visiting the remote Pike River Mine

You should never have to go to work and not be kept safe by your employers. The people that were running that mine knew that what they were doing was wrong, and that's so much worse again.

– Olivia Monk on safety concerns around Pike River

I didn't want a lot of people around ...So a few of us came here. I remember a group of us, we held hands and prayed. I just couldn't bear to think that anything had happened to Michael, I just didn't dare go there.

– Kath Monk on relatives of Pike River workers meeting up, in the days following the explosion

People were starting to cheer and clap, and then they dropped this bombshell that there'd been a second explosion and that there was no chance that anyone could be alive...

– Olivia Monk on the announcement of the second explosion, during a meeting about rescuers entering the mine

...Nan Dixon was the mother of Allan Dixon. Sonya Rockhouse is the mother of Daniel Rockhouse, who survived, and Benjamin Rockhouse, who did not. Kath Monk was the mother of Michael Monk; Olivia Monk was his sister. Brenda Rackley was the partner of John Hale. Anna Osborne was married to Milton Osborne. Allan Dixon was 59. Benjamin Rockhouse was 21. Michael Monk was 23. John Hale was 45. Milton Osborne was 54.

– Stuff writer Philip Matthews lists those interviewed for this documentary, 1 August 2015