Indigenous Stories Reaching out to the World: New Zealand Māori & Native American Cinemas

Abstract

Indigenous Stories Reaching Out to the World New Zealand Maori & Native American Cinemas Andrew Horton What future on thislittle cornerof land,once enough tosupport many butnow in these daysmerelyaworryand a trouble. ?Patricia Grace, "Transition," Waiariki and Other Stories above Keisha Castle-Hughes in the role of Pai (Whale Rider, 2002) Fade in:amother is rushed into thedelivery room and gives birth to twins, a son and a daughter, but themother and the son die, leaving thedaughter to a grieving fatherand grandmother and a disappointed grandfather.The family isMaori, and the scene opens thepopular Oscar-nominated New Zealand film, Niki Caro's Whale Rider (2002),based on theshortnovel by the Maori poet and author Witi Ihimaera. But return to the "disappointed grandfather." What ishis story?Simple but complex. He is the Maori chiefof his town's tribe,and he had hoped fora grandson topass on the tribal leadership to. Now he is cursed with a granddaughter instead of a grandson. The novel and the film, however, are told through the girl's?Pai's?point of view. Played by then twelve-year-old Keisha Castle Hughes (whowas nominated foranOscar forher performance), Pai narrates her struggle to grow up without a mother and her effort towin her grandfather's acceptance. She narrates to us, the viewers, in voiceover, building her story into the oralmythology ofherMaori culture, thus the title "whale rider." A contemporary Maori story thus unfolds, combined with Maori mythology as we see the images of the sea, whales, and the mother's childbirthand her death and Pai's brother's death while we listen toPai relatingher story: In theold days aman felta great empti ness that was waiting, waiting tobe filled up. Waiting for someone to love it. Wait ing fora leader, and he came on theback of a whale, a man to lead a new people, our ancestor, Paikea, but now we were waiting for the firstbornof thenew gen 50 i World Literature Today eration, for thedescendant of the Whale Rider, fortheboywho would be Chief. And as we see her fathercrying and holding Pai's dead mother, we hear her final voiceover words to us for the opening of the film: "There was no gladness when Iwas born. My twin broth er died and took his mother with him." The film then moves to Pai as a twelve-year-old and follows throughher story. Storytelling is somuch a part of every culture and its literature, but this is especially trueof indigenous peoples forwhom the oral tradition has thrived through the centuries and continues today in many parts of the world, includingwithin Maori culture in New Zealand and themany Native American cultures within the United States. Focusing on both of these cultures, Iwish to sug gest that there is also a strong linkbetween their literaryand cinematic traditionsthat we do not see so clearly in considering American literatureand Hollywood filmmaking. Take, for instance, the top-ten box-office American films of all time as of January 2009: Titanic (1997), The Dark Knight (2008), StarWars (1977), Shrek2 (2004), E.T. (1982), StarWars: Epi sode 1 (1999), Pirates of theCaribbean:Dead Mans Chest (2006), Spider Man (2002), StarWars: Episode III (2005), and The Lord of theRings: Return of the King (2003). Do we note any Ernest Hemingway, Sherman Alexie, Ralph Ellison, JoyceCarol Oates, William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, orWilla Cather in this list?Similarly, is therea single film about American lifeand culture,past or present? "None" in either case! Thus we begin with the reality thatwhat is treasured inAmerican literature is very different fromwhat movie viewers line up to see in the multiplex cinemas. And what about any Native American films in the top, say, 250 sellingAmeri can films? Once again, the answer is zero. In contrast, New Zealand isnot only a differ ent country,but one with a fascinating popular and award-winning indigenous tradition in both literatureand cinema. The quality and number of ^^^1 films made by and about Maori inNew Zealand is impressive, and three of these films are in the top-tenbox-office New Zealand movies of all time, each coming froma popular and respectedwork of published Maori prose fiction. I have already started, of course, with Whale Rider. But...