From Grassroots Film to Global Movement: The Māoriland Story

In the heart of Aotearoa, The Māoriland Charitable Trust was established to support the Māori film industry and promote indigenous voices and perspectives globally. Established in 2014, Māoriland has since developed into a community hub that focuses on the wellbeing of its community in Ōtaki.

This community movement all started with a small, grassroots film about a group of aunties and a lawnmower.

“My Aunty Libby Hakaraia was directing a film about our four aunties and a lawnmower at our local marae. You could see all our whānau peeking their heads over the fence trying to see what was going on,” says Maddy Hakaraia, Director of Māoriland Film Festival.

The film, ‘The Lawnmower Men of Kapu’ ended up a success, touring the country as part of multiple film festivals. This was the lightbulb moment for Libby and her team, as they saw the positive reaction to their mahi.

“The success of ‘The Lawnmower Men of Kapu’ was the first time our wider whānau had an opportunity to see the creative world we live in, and the possibilities for our storytelling at a national level.”

At this time, creatives and indigenous filmmakers from around the world were looking for a place in the southern hemisphere to congregate, share and appreciate their works. In March 2014, Libby put a call out for people to come to Ōtaki, and they came: filmmakers from the Northern Hemisphere, from across te Moana Nui ā Kiwa and, from Aotearoa.

Māoriland Film Festival

The inaugural Māoriland Film Festival was created to celebrate Indigenous voices and storytelling in film and to uplift the perspectives and stories of Indigenous peoples.

Over the past nine years, the festival has grown to be the largest presenter of Indigenous screen content in the Southern Hemisphere, with a year-round programme of events that include industry events, emerging technology (VR/AR/XR), lecture series – NATIVE Minds, sound and stage performances, a full visual arts programme – Toi Matarau (Art Gallery/Shop) and more.

Since the first festival, MFF has become a highlight event for the Kāpiti Coast, attracting thousands of tourists - both local and international - and millions of dollars into the local economy.

Internationally, the festival is now the largest international Indigenous film festival in the world - both in programming and audience

Expanding

In 2017, after three successful film festivals, the team at Māoriland quickly realised that there was an opportunity to expand.

After acquiring the old Edhouses building, Māoriland had a physical home for stories and the arts in Ōtaki. This hub would hold host to over 3000 rangatahi every year, honing their artistic skills and nurturing their creativity through their rangatahi strategy – Te Uru Maire.

“Te Uru Maire’ unites film, creativity, innovation and technology to develop rangatahi for the future of work as story leaders, creatives and entrepreneurs,” says Libby.

“We believe in giving Māori youth access to the tools and skills to create their own stories and to connect with other Indigenous storytellers worldwide.”

The organisation is now a buzzing ecosystem of activities which includes Toi Matarau, M.A.T.C.H - the Māoriland Tech Creative Hub, national and international youth filmmaking programmes, performing arts programmes and live music and theatre.

“We recognise that rangatahi are our tuakana as much as our teina. And for that reason, we wanted to make space for them to thrive.”

Community growth, outside of film

The Māoriland Maara Kai aims to grow wairua nourishing kai for our whānau and community.

The Māoriland Maara exists to support the Ōtaki community to expand their collective knowledge of how to grow and share healthy, affordable kai.

“We want to spread knowledge on how we think about and deal with waste. At its core, Mana kai is about how we create a sustainable approach to food so everyone in our community is fed.”

“Maara Kai provides a holistic approach to how we support rangatahi. From their hauora, to what their eating, all the way to their education.”

Māoriland is calling for creators of all kinds to submit their projects for Māoriland Film Festival 2024. For more information visit here.