“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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“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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“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 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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“For parents on our own language journeys, we need to bring our children along for the ride.” — Tainui Stephens.
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“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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“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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“The hardest part about learning Māori, is learning how to think Māori.” — Tainui Stephens.
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“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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“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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“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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“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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“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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“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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“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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E-Tangata is an online Sunday magazine specialising in stories that reflect the experiences of Māori and Pasifika in Aotearoa.
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