Evergreen

88 EVERGREEN Autumn
Laya Raki and Jack Hawkins.
(continued)
natural appearance it gave the slightly
dusty New Zealand countryside.
Technicolor would make the greens
look glossier, in his opinion.
Television was more than six years
away from New Zealand homes
when The Seekers was filmed, so New
Zealanders still relied on radio for
most of their at-home entertainment.
On the night of 28th February
1954 the ZB commercial network
of the New Zealand Broadcasting
Service (NZBS) aired On Location, a
documentary about the making of
the movie. The script was written
and produced by Arthur E. Jones,
who had recorded the programme
while the British contingent was
filming at Honeymoon Bay on Lake
Rotoiti.
Jones said he and his crew had
joined them at Rotorua to spend
several days watching them and even
working with them. “Twenty-three
people had travelled from England,
and we were able to get interviews
with such top-line actors as Jack
Hawkins and Noel Purcell, and
such experienced film-makers as the
producer George Brown, the director
Ken Annakin, and the cameraman
Peter Hennessy.”
Listeners to On Location heard
actors Hawkins and Purcell reading
extracts from the script, and the
voice of Annakin using an NZBS
microphone to direct a scene
between Raki and Hawkins, where
she swims up to him while he is
fishing.
Ten years after filming The Seekers,
Laya Raki said in a 1964 interview
that she retained the happiest and
most vivid memories of her time in
New Zealand, particularly of Rotorua
and Whakatane. She did not mention
the stir she had caused at the hotel
in Rotorua with her late-night nude
swimming in the pool.
Raki was born in Germany of
French-Dutch-Javanese descent. Press
releases said she was cast as Moana
after no suitable Maori actress could
be found for the role. While critics
generally enjoyed her performance,
many Maori did not.
The gesticulating of her dancing
was called “foreign” by Maori
historian Guide Rangi. “No Maori
girl would dance and carry on
like that,” she said. Rangi had
escorted Queen Elizabeth around