Draft 2 PhD Introduction - ResearchSpace@Auckland

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had gone to some lengths to run errands and do chores for Puhi in return for the crew’s
intrusion upon her life. Helen and Toka Tewara, local schoolteachers from Waimana,
remember Ward as not the kind of person to take advantage of the situation. Careful not
to upset local people, he asked their opinions and consulted them about the film. 564
While the locals recognized Ward as being different because “he was prepared to live
rough”, they tolerated him. For them, the making of the film was an unfamiliar activity
but not something to make a fuss about. Ward clearly did his best to fit in but what he
may not have fully appreciated was the fact that Puhi, who was steeped in traditional
Maori values, took it for granted that strangers to the community must be cared for. She
would therefore have put her own feelings aside when it came to looking after Ward and
his crew, insisting on cooking for them, for example, whether or not she felt they were
imposing.
Barry Barclay cites clear instances of non-Maori insensitivity to Maori values, for
example when a BBC film crew came to New Zealand to make a documentary on the
Maori situation. The producer, who wanted to interview an important spokesperson on
a particular Maori issue, refused to let her friends sit with her while she was being
interviewed. 565 He also cites occasions when non-Maori crew were insensitive to Maori
customs when eating at a marae, not being trained to respect the call of the cooks to
come and eat immediately. 566 It is experiences such as these which have made Maori
filmmakers such as Barclay reluctant to utilize non-Maori crew, particularly when
filming Maori subject-matter. It is important that such issues should be strongly
debated in this country, but Ward’s film was clearly a more complex project than others
that have come under attack.
One aspect of the film on which commentators, the local people and the filmmaker
himself seem to agree on is that, as Ward says: “The film was important because it
documented Puhi’s belief in the older values in a very fundamental way”. 567 An
important aspect of these “older values” was the notion of aroha, which Parekowhai
recognised in the film: “In Spring is about aroha and that generosity of spirit which one
old kuia has for those around her”. 568 The success of the film in documenting Puhi’s
564 Lynette Read, interview with Helen and Toka Tewara, 16 April 2000.
565 Barry Barclay, Our Own Image (Auckland: Longman Paul, 1990) 12.
566 Barclay, Our Own Image 71.
567 Ward, Edge of the Earth: Stories and Images from the Antipodes 23.
568 Parekowhai, "Where the Green Ants Really Dream," 8.