Draft 2 PhD Introduction - ResearchSpace@Auckland

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disability alone. Certainly, the film evokes a strong sense of isolation, in contrast to the
emphasis we might expect on rural Maori community. Helen Martin has suggested that:
“Although [the title] has no literal meaning (Ward says it ‘just felt right’), the ideas of
growth, youth and regeneration as expressed in ‘spring’ and ‘plants’ are juxtaposed
against the implications of the words ‘one’ and ‘alone’. The landscape, the
environment, are to all intents and purposes neutral, but to people living close to the
earth, depending on nature presenting a benign face, they often seem hostile”. 457
In his autobiographical account of the making of the film in Edge of the Earth, Ward
states that he knew he wanted to learn more about the Maori who lived in the Ureweras,
one of the few parts of New Zealand where Maori language and traditions were still
preserved in daily life, because he wanted to explore their view of the country he lived
in. 458 Ward’s approach was not, however, to attempt to find “typical” members of the
community but to choose two unusual individuals within it who were in some respects
outsiders. While his desire to explore and document the world-view of the Tuhoe
people, as well as his wish to document a way of life that might soon be lost, ostensibly
provided the motivation to make the documentary, there were other more personal,
underlying motivations. He is quoted in Alternative Cinema as saying: “I think there
are a lot of good things in resurgence in the Maori culture. I wanted to learn about it.
I’d grown up in the Wairarapa but never heard Maori spoken. I was interested in seeing
another part of the country where the traditions were much stronger. The film grew out
of my desire to learn about something else”. 459 He also admits that he was drawn to the
world of the Tuhoe because it was “a world of mysteries”, which his Catholic
upbringing made him receptive to and that in seeking to understand that world, he was
also seeking to learn more about himself. 460 The interest in exploration of personal
identity informs much of Ward’s subsequent work as a filmmaker, and when I
interviewed him some years after the making of In Spring One Plants Alone, he
reiterated that he was interested in living in the Maori community for two years because
that was part of who he was since he is a New Zealander and the Maori population is a
457
Helen Martin, "In Spring One Plants Alone: A Matter of Seeing It," Alternative Cinema 12.3&4
(1984): 12.
458
Ward, Edge of the Earth: Stories and Images from the Antipodes 5.
459
Martin, "In Spring One Plants Alone: A Matter of Seeing It," 10. Ward’s interest in the Maori worldview
stems from his childhood to some extent – although he had never heard Maori spoken, he grew up
only a short distance away from Papawai Pa, the seat of the Maori Parliament. (Lynette Read, telephone
interview with Vincent Ward, 17 December 2003.)
460
Ward, Edge of the Earth: Stories and Images from the Antipodes 6.