Te Ohaki a Nihe

Tu Tangata, Issue 7, 1 August 1982, Page 8

Te Ohaki a Nihe

Television New Zealand’s IITSt Maori language ploy was Screened recently during Maori Language Week, with f t , . „ , . _ the playwright Selwyn Muru confident the Spark has been lit for Maori drama.

ro ™ d e sharing hu last days with the whanau surrounding him. Nihe shares the family’s love of gambling on the horses and he dies providmg them with a winner in more ways than one. It’s this realisation of the final gift of Nihe, (Te Ohaki A Nihe) that gives so much power and purpose to the play.

Produced by Ray Waru, the play features Selwyn Muru in the lead role, with Dennis Hansen as the son and Waireti Rolleston his wife. Erena Hond and George Stirling are the next generation with Chris and Queenie Walker as the mokopuna.

Playwright Selwyn Muru, Ngati Kuri of Aupouri, wrote Te Ohaki a Nihe some years back, with the first public performance a radio play during 1978 Maori Language Week. For television, the play was shortened and made punchier.

Gems and jests

Selwyn “The Maori way of imparting knowledge is so much more informal than the pakeha. The old man, Nihe passes on his little gems with all the gentle nudges and jests that characterise our way. His view of pakeha medicine is that the pakeha creates new sickness and then sells the cure, making the patient pay both ways.” Selwyn believes Maori language and style fits well into drama, giving as an example that all the actors were amateurs.

“All of them were acting from the heart, the aroha, the ihi, the mauri. The dialogue of the play has risen from the

lips of our own people in everyday life. To me the whaikorero is a dramatic artform. People who speak on the marae are performers who use dramatic gestures to emphasise their whaikorero.

Not alien

“Maori drama on the stage or screen is an extension of this. For those who say it’s an alien artform, anything is alien the first time. Harry Dansey showed the strength of words some years ago with his stories and it’s up to us to carry on.”

Te Ohaki a Nihe can be viewed on the surface as a touching little slice of Maoridom fairly palatable to a television audience, albeit in the Maori tongue. But the barbs lie beneath this surface both for Maori and pakeha alike.

Nihe’s son, Hiko, in the course of picking best bets for the weekend’s racing, traces the geneology of the winner of the Auckland Cup to justify his choice. However he’s a bit sketchy on his own whakapapa. Nihe’s scolds him thus. “Kua riro koe ite mana onga hoiho e Hiko. He maha koutou kua noho taurekareka. Mohio ke atu koutou ki nga tatai hoiho; ki o koutou ake nei whakapa. Te nuinga inaianei, heoi ano i mohio ki o ratau karani mama, Karani papa, mutu atu ano i reira. I nga wa o mua, e hara koe i te tangata kia whakaheke mai ra ano koe ia koe mai inga waka i hoea mai ra i Hawaiki. Titiro kia a koe e Hiko, ahakoa pehea taku ako atu ia koe; ka wareware tonu koe ku o tupuna, ka whai tonu koe i o hoiho ... purari paka.”

Funny way Later on in the play the young couple throw off at the old man munching away at his dog biscuits without realising his false teeth are not in. Nihe’s mokopuna defend the old man but Nihe tells them it’s just the way of showing affection. “Pai ana e moko, our people, they have that funny way of showing the love. When they cheek you, they love you. When they say you purari paka, that means kei te pai koe. The ways of showing the love probably has a lot to do with the varied career and impetus behind the playwright.

Selwyn has served a long media apprenticeship in broadcasting which is now paying off with contract work on Television’s Koha programme. But in between times he’s also gained a reputation as a visual artist using canvas, wood and bronze. Along with other talented people in the Maori Artist and Writers Society, he’s been at the forefront of promoting Maori culture through the artists eye. “Whatever is creative in a person overflows into different activities. For me the story of Te Ohaki a Nihe takes place everyday, I have just added a writers dimension. It’s a play for and about the Maori and they will recognise themselves within the play, but this time not as an outsider sees them.”

Koha, television’s Maori programme, has come of age as a bridge programme for New Zealanders according to its producer, Ray Waru. And he says this two way access has proved the point that it is possible to portray the Maori culture without losing integrity.

He believes many more people watch Koha, as shown by the programme moving from a fairly inaccessible Sunday slot to a mid-evening Monday one. Ray says the nature of programme has presented problems in handling, especially in the use of Maori.

For the fluent speakers of Maori, Koha has been seen as a jealously guarded treasure where the language should be uppermost, but for other non-speakers exclusive use of the language would have cut out a large percentage of viewers, Maori and pakeha.

So Ray says compromises have been made to retain the language where most fitting, with sub-titles explaining what’s said. He says Koha’s been very fortunate to have fluent speakers such as Robert Pouwhare and Selwyn Muru on the team along with newcomer Aroaro Hond.

Ray’s direction of Koha since its beginnings a few years ago, has been to reflect what is happening in the Maori community.

“It’s been difficult to be objective at times because of the possesive way in which Maoris see Koha. At times it’s been difficult to keep a distance because of the tribal thing. At all times we’ve had to be very sure of the kawa and that we didn’t offend with our cameras and other gear.”

Filming Maori life presents tricky aspects. Ray speaks of the need to have his team talk and eat with the tangata whenua before any shooting of film. “It’s only polite to spend some time beforehand preparing and laying the groundwork for a successful shooting”.

For example an item in the last series on the cowboys of the East Coast took two research trips before a camera crew flew into the area. Even then many filming days were lost because of rain.

Ray Waru says Koha has got punchier with the addition of new frontman Robin Kora, and there’s more current affairs.

But Ray is shortly to leave Koha and is moving to Television New Zealand’s Drama department where he’ll be putting together a documentary about Maori life. It’s planned to screen six half hour programmes in April or June 1984.

Ray’s replacement is Ernie Leonard who plans to carry on the high standards Koha has set.

Koha may now be moving into a higher gear but its success must leave some questions for Television New Zealand, questions that have been asked for some time by the Maori community.

If Koha can succeed as a bridge programme between Maori and pakeha, why has Television New Zealand’s News and Current Affairs not taken up the challenge to screen Maori news.

Obviously exclusive use of the Maori language may make the programme sound more authentic but it also cuts out most of the potential viewers. If instead lessons from Koha were taken and a blend of both languages used with a culturally sympathetic treatment, that may fire the spark for true dialogue in a country that calls itself ‘multicultural’.

It’s not enough each year to see the news media pop token programmes up during Maori Language Week. Koha has shown that the other fifty one weeks can be cul-

turally filling also.