Women - Māori Women in a Pākehā World - Nga Wahine Māori i Roto i te ao Pākehā

In the 1970s statistics for Māori women were dire; most left school unqualified, they earned less money, and died years earlier than their Pākehā sisters. In this fourth episode of 1977 series Women, wāhine toa advocate for change. Psychologist (and future MP) Donna Awatere Huata discusses how New Zealand institutions are failing wāhine Māori. Solo mum (and future filmmaker) Merata Mita speaks powerfully about how sexist and racist attitudes forced her to become "a liar and a cheat" in order to house her kids. Activist Eva Rickard encourages Māori women to reclaim traditional skills, like hunting.

These films are about the way women feel, almost totally. They're to enable women's experiences to surface.

– Researcher Julie Thompson on the mission behind the Women series, Broadsheet 52, September 1997, page 17

Key Cast & Crew

Sharon Crosbie

Narrator

Merata Mita

Subject

Margaret Moth

Cinematographer

Robin Scholes

Research

Eva Rickard

Subject

Deirdre McCartin

Producer