The Happy Bankrupt
“It’s been said that bankruptcy happens gradually, and then suddenly. That’s very true. It was my fault for making it gradual because I didn’t face up to my tax bill right away.” — Tainui Stephens.
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Author: Tainui Stephens
The right words to say
“I sometimes find myself on the speakers’ paepae at a formal hui. It’s always a daunting thing. Never to be taken for granted. Always to be reflected on.” — Tainui Stephens.
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Whina — doing justice to an icon
“Love is the final word of the film — a transcendent love of place and time, as much as of the heart and of each other.” — Tainui Stephens.
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Making friends with Mum
“It took me a long time to become friends with my mother — she was so busy being one.” — Tainui Stephens.
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Don’s Last Post
“Don recalled discovering an enemy bunker and shooting the Germans inside. Inside a pocket of one of the dead he discovered a photo of the man’s wife and children. It devastated him.” — Tainui Stephens.
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In thrall to bullshit
“This was the first person I’d ever met who was healthy and sane in every way, but whose view of the world was entirely informed by the media. The sum of the biased tabloid, talkback and television BS she consumed had polluted her view of the country she lived in.” — Tainui Stephens
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Waitangi: A mixed blessing in a beautiful disguise
“Waitangi is more than a powerful word in legislation and history. It’s more than sausage sizzles and a family day off.” — Tainui Stephens.
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Embrace the taniwha
“I vowed that I wouldn’t allow myself to be shamed by my ignorance again. As I think back to that long ago hui, part of me realises that all I had to do was get over myself.” — Tainui Stephens.
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The new generation of filmmakers
“Over the past five years, Ngā Pakiaka has given 3,000 rangatahi, here and overseas, a taste of filmmaking. With the expert guidance of Māoriland’s producers, they’ve handled the planning, funding, and delivery of their work.” — Tainui Stephens.
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The heroes in our whānau
“The private heroes among our friends and family won’t save the world by their personal courage, but their presence in our lives give us the chance to save our humanity.” — Tainui Stephens.
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Calling out hatred
“We have to make a noise about the bullshit, the bigotry, the terminally foolish, the wilfully ignorant. The dangerous.” — Tainui Stephens.
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The making of a Māori town: Ōtaki
“There is an indigenous spirit in Ōtaki that is unapologetic and proud. By definition that spirit is also loving.” — Tainui Stephens.
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Chronic Kaupapa Fatigue
“I’ve known many individuals who grew old before their time because of the energy they expended, and the risks they took with their health or their domestic happiness, all to be able to serve a vital kaupapa that uplifted the wellbeing of the people.” — Tainui Stephens.
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None but ourselves can reboot our minds
“Colonisation’s most torrid battles take place in the mind. And here in Aotearoa, our thoughts have been held captive by misplaced perceptions of superiority and inferiority.” — Tainui Stephens.
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Story sovereignty belongs with the people
“It is the people who offer us the material and inspiration for our stories . . . The people are the ultimate sovereign power. Story sovereignty belongs with the people we serve.” — Tainui Stephens.
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The Māoriland story
“We define ourselves by the stories we choose to tell about ourselves. When we make films for our own people, it’s not just about the art of it, nor the business of it. We are testing the empowering potential of film.” — Tainui Stephens.
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Te haunga o te tangata: Smell thy neighbour
“The soundscape of a meeting house at sleep can be a wondrous thing or a foretaste of hell for the newbie, if only for the realisation of how many ways it is possible for human beings to snore.” — Tainui Stephens.
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The big beats of history
“The thing about the big beats of history is that they’re often signs or reminders that we must now reimagine the society we live in. Momentous history requires momentous change.” — Tainui Stephens.
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To be Māori requires action
“For parents on our own language journeys, we need to bring our children along for the ride.” — Tainui Stephens.
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Pay attention to those who go before
“I would seek out kaumātua who were knowledgeable about the Māori world. I’d sit and listen to their words, try and remember them, and write them down afterwards.” — Tainui Stephens.
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Asking the right questions
“My journey to speak Māori became an act of reclaiming my identity. I had to know who I really was, before I could speak Māori fully.” — Tainui Stephens.
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Finding your voice through the reo
“The hardest part about learning Māori, is learning how to think Māori.” — Tainui Stephens.
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My pepeha is my world
“I knew of relations in Auckland, but not of any tribe. All that the old man had told us was he was from ‘up north’. Oh good, that narrows it down then!” — Tainui Stephens.
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Oh Canada!
“Canadians are inclined to point to racism as something that exists in the USA. ‘We are not the USA!’” — Tainui Stephens.
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What will our rangatahi inherit?
“If I was a teenager today, I’d be anxious about the world I’m about to inherit. A job, a home, a family, clean air, and fresh water are well on their way to becoming luxuries.” — Tainui Stephens.
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Farewelling Tallulah
“I’m sad to see our Little Miss slide listlessly into a final acceptance that her magnificent animal frame is on its last legs. She writes the last page of that Ngāruawāhia chapter of my life.” — Tainui Stephens farewells a dear friend.
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Whina Cooper: Fearless and unforgettable
“For several decades, Whina’s astute brand of leadership had been shaped by the traditions of her elders and powered by her own mighty self-confidence.”
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‘Tell The Dead I’m Coming!’
“It’s a mix of carnage and self-mockery.” — Producer Tainui Stephens on The Dead Lands, a Māori take on a television genre that relies on “dollops of action and a lot of splatter”.
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The Boss Is Dead: A tribute to Hiwi Tauroa
“Hiwi was perfect to be a Conciliator. He was not an angry man. He was a naturally diplomatic kind of guy, yet had the capacity to set his jaw, dig his heels in, and rark his voice up a bit.”
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