Draft 2 PhD Introduction - ResearchSpace@Auckland

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heron in the film, however, is an ordinary blue heron and it also apparently flies in the
opposite direction to heaven. In the light of Bollinger’s and Narbey’s comments about
the reasons for the inclusion of this shot, it seems that Ward was motivated by the
notion of the heron as part of the everyday environment of Puhi and Niki, as well as by
Maori symbolism; but, as Narbey pointed out, practical considerations intervened - it
was difficult to get any kind of shot of the heron, and the rare white heron does not exist
in this part of the country, only the more common blue heron. The footage was
interpreted as being simply a wonderful shot by local Tuhoe who had viewed the film
both shortly after it was made and on more recent occasions.
Another criticism Parekowhai makes about Ward’s attitude to his subjects is that he
“remains largely unaware or possibly does not actually even care” that Niki and Puhi
were not local Maori from the Urewera, homeland of the Tuhoe but displaced persons
from the Chatham Islands, and that for this reason, “their isolation from the community
around them is real”. 556 While it seems that Puhi and Niki were isolated from the
community, it is not for the reasons that Parekowhai suggests, since according to a
number of local Maori interviewed, Puhi was born in the Ureweras, although not at
Matahi but further up the valley. She moved to Matahi when the rest of Te Rua’s
community moved (as discussed earlier in the chapter). She was not thought to be from
the Chatham Islands, although it is possible that her ancestors were.
Parekowhai also suggests that Ward manipulated events in order to impose his own
world-view on the situation, in the shot towards the end of the film, where the old lady
is revealed as hiding an axe behind her back. “Where Ward may have placed the axe in
the old woman’s hands as some defence against the potential injury Niki could do to
her, it is more likely that she regards it as a tool of caring. That the axe is supposed to
assume greater symbolic importance, is the film maker’s own personal mythology”. 557
However, Ward’s description of the event is very different. Before the camera crew
arrived, Niki had had an outburst of violence and Puhi had run away from him, which
she frequently did when he became violent. Helen and Toka Tewara and Bay Takao
(who would look after Niki after Puhi died) confirmed this last fact. 558 Ward describes
the situation when he arrived: “[Puhi] only ventured back to her house when she saw
556 Parekowhai, "Where the Green Ants Really Dream," 8.
557 Parekowhai, "Where the Green Ants Really Dream," 9.
558 Lynette Read, interview with Bay Takao, 16 April 2000.