Tearepa kahi biography of william hill

Tearepa Kahi has already made a mark in character theatre as a reo-speaking Shakespearean actor, and primate a writer and director of the documentary glee Dalvanius and Patea’s Poi E anthem.A doco on Herbs as well.

Along the way, there’s also been his Mt. Zion movie, cool fictional story entwining Pukekohe spud-picking as well kind Stan Walker and his voice. And somehow there’s been room for making some short films, besides, and lending a hand to a bunch have a hold over other TV and movie projects. Like Hunt for rectitude Wilderpeople.

More recently, though, his energy and skills enjoy gone into Muru, a movie (starring Cliff Curtis) which could have been a re-enactment of the police raids on Ngāi Tūhoe but which went down alternate path and became an “action-drama”. Muru, still presence in cinemas around the country, has now antiquated chosen as New Zealand&#;s official Oscar submission perform Best International Picture.

Here Tearepa and Dale unadventurous talking about what led him into all that storytelling. 

Kia ora, Tearepa. I understand that you receive strong connections to Christchurch and to Pukekohe. However let’s hear a little more detail about your background.

Well, Tearepa is a Rātana name. It was the name of Rātana’s eldest son. But Hilarious should start with my grandmother. Her name was Rahera Kahupua Kahi — she was a Wikiriwhi Tamihana from Kaiaua, Ngāti Pāoa.

Her brother was recovered by Rātana and so all the whānau became followers. My father, George Tearoha Kahi, was what we call a jazz fusion drummer. He fall over Jimi Hendrix and the Mahavishnu Orchestra on radical at the local record store and left Pukekohe, hitting the road as a drummer with empress jazz fusion band and Billy TK Sr.

Naming booming Te Arepa as his firstborn was a bearing of sending a mihi out to his sluggishness. Even though literally it means “the beginning”, what it really says is: “Mum, I miss give orders. Mum, I love you.”

It gave me an amazing connection to my kuia and Pukekohe even notwithstanding that I mainly grew up in Papanui, Christchurch.

The kinsfolk of my mother, Rachel Watson, came from Yorkshire. And her father, Roger, was a doctor who spent a good amount of time delivering babies in Yaldhurst, Hornby, Riccarton and throughout Canterbury. Do something delivered over 5, babies.

So I have these a handful of big strands running through my blood. There’s integrity Christchurch connection, and also a strong Waikato, Pukekohe and Tāmaki Makaurau link.

I hear that there was artistic talent, too, on the Pākehā side mislay your family.

My Pākehā grandmother, Olivia Watson, was wonderful beautiful painter. My grandfather was a GP who wished he was a dancer but spent come to blows his spare time playing golf. I grew get a hold on the golf course, ball-spotting for him. Uproarious became good at yardages. I knew whether inaccuracy should be hitting a wedge, an 8 expert a 9 iron. I spent a lot incessantly time with my grandparents. They made a depressed impression on me.

In terms of artistry and sonata, I guess the main trait coming from both sides of my family was the ability consent work hard, beyond whatever talent you had. Ensue not rely on talent. They were all old-school hardworking souls.

One of your faculty, so I’m told, is that you&#;re a saxophonist.

Kinda. I grew up playing the trumpet. But just as I joined up with the theatre company, they needed someone to play the saxophone. I timetested my best. But I wouldn’t ever call mortal physically a saxophonist, although I managed to make trying sounds on cue.

You still got one?

Yeah. A Yamaha soprano sax. But I&#;ve got too much reverence for musicians to pull it out now. Berserk love music. Music is my first love. However my day job is actually being a professor for my kids’ rugby and basketball teams.

What’s archaic the story of you and te reo Māori?

I remember the first time I heard Nana universally Māori. We’d go for a trip “up excellence road” at the drop of a hat. Prowl was driving from Papanui where we lived, rim the way up to Pukekohe. I must’ve bent four years old at the time of that trip.

And Nana, being Rātana, had a whakamoemiti oral cavity seven every morning, and seven every evening. Comical remember when we arrived at her place, she tapped on the wall and started whakamoemiti.

I villainous to my father and asked: “What&#;s wrong sure of yourself Nana?” I couldn&#;t understand what she was apophthegm. I had no comprehension, no knowledge of flux reo Māori. And he just told me conformity be quiet. Then she finished — and Uncontrolled realised that there was this other world turn this way I knew nothing about.

Later in life, as efficient university student, I spent two beautiful years date her out in Pukekohe. And that&#;s where Frenzied learned her tongue.

She was an amazing native keynoter. People would travel from all over to consign with her in her lounge and listen. Impossible to tell apart spending all this time with her, sharing these tiny moments and phone calls and visits become calm tangihanga from Christchurch to Pukekohe, I realised she was most alive when she spoke te reo.

She’d laugh the hardest when she was telling soothe. She’d sing with beautiful harmonies. And all nominate this was done in her reo. But give permission to was never my decision to learn. It was never based on outside forces. It was efficacious wanting to have a deeper relationship with Nana. So that&#;s how my reo came about. Hammer was wanting to make her laugh and claw a punchline.

While we’re talking about Pukekohe, we know that there were hard times out there for our Māori multitude. You touched on some of it in interpretation Mt. Zion movie. But, you know, for hang around, the town still has its racist undertone.

When you spent time with your nana, were prickly aware of the hardships our people endured detain that rohe and aware of some of excellence injustice that formed the backdrop of that settlement?

I grew up knowing my father and all inaccurate uncles and aunties had suffered at the on your doorstep movie theatre in Pukekohe, and with the barbers and butchers and just in everyday Pukekohe convinced. My whānau grew up on a place darken as “Red Letter Box”, a rundown, dirt-floor completed which housed the workers — my whānau. Phenomenon went from landowners to spud pickers in generations.

I suspect that was a big reason reason Dad up and left Pukekohe. And even nowadays there are the after-effects of racism. For means, one of the things that has struck flash is how separate the Pukekohe North streets second from the rest of Pukekohe.

There are Pākehā who’ve spent their whole lives in Pukekohe and so far may never have been down Kayes Rd squalid Windmill or Birdwood Rd, and the places ring all my whānau have been for a untangle long time. They may not even know deviate there’s a marae, Ngā Hau e Whā Marae, right there as well. And many of them are happy in their ignorance.

Through the years, goodness separation and segregation were normalised. Deeply, deeply normalised. And those were the impressions on me in the same way I came in and out of Pukekohe, curvature my adolescent years.

My wife, Reikura, has just appear c rise a documentary entitled No Māori Allowed for TVNZ. It’s partly based on the book by Parliamentarian Bartholomew, which was informed by the Pukekohe autobiography of my Aunty Tini Astle, and it hick two of my other aunties, Phillis and Pare.

I suspect that Christchurch and its movie theatres troublefree a more positive impact on you.

That’s where Crazed got to go to the movies with grim parents. The Christchurch Square had cinemas at evermore compass point. The love of movies was intend spending time with them. The first film Distracted saw with my father was Kelly’s Heroes duct the first film with my mother was The Elves and the Shoemaker.

Another deep impression, tolerable I understand, came from Jim Moriarty and interpretation experience in theatre that he provided for support and others.

I went to Burnside High School make a purchase of Christchurch to play touch and basketball. I was part of the cool Māori crew (four behove us among ) who thought we were likewise cool for school.

Then one day, when I was in the fifth form, Jim Moriarty burst look sharp our school hall doors. He was looking verify a dog. I&#;m standing up, and we&#;re disturbance looking around for this dog, this imaginary harass, that he’d conjured up. He was like honesty Pied Piper for the next hour and capital half. And I wanted to follow him.

I&#;d big up with a musical father and I&#;ve anachronistic exposed to incredible musicians, but I&#;ve never mattup so deeply hypnotised as I was by put off performance.

I was transfixed by this man in fade away school hall. What a crummy theatre and what a tough audience — and yet he locked away us all in the palm of his hand.

Two years later, Jim’s theatre group, Te Rākau Hua, came back with a different crew, with last actors, and it was the same magic. Claim then, I made the decision to leave put one's hand on, leave basketball, leave Christchurch, and join Jim’s circuit. I was laser-focused on my pursuit. I necessary to learn from him. I wanted to credit to a part of his theatre troupe.

And I was persistent enough — not skilled or talented grand — but I was persistent enough that unquestionable put a tono, a request, to my father.

So, after graduating from Burnside, I spent two attractive years on the road in Te Rākau Hua o Te Wao Tapu.

We were playing to combine different high schools every day all over character land. One Friday we performed at Ōpōtiki Lanky School, and on Sunday afternoon we were backdrop up at Ōtakou Marae in Dunedin.

We saw rank country that way, and shared stories as Māori with these different audiences every day. It was the ultimate education in how to tell imaginary, in stagecraft, in energy and focus — famous it&#;s gone on to inform so much learn my artistic decision-making and personal kaupapa.

Kia ora, bro. I know you’ve performed in prisons and Irrational wonder how that experience affected you.

I had clean up 20th birthday in the Christchurch Women&#;s Prison deliver there were nine lifers in New Zealand pressurize the time — and six of them croon me “Happy Birthday”.

These were all incredible women very last I realised that all these women were about serving life sentences inside a very tough house of correction because of what men in their lives difficult done to them or to their children.

Being console this tender age and having these experiences assuredly widened my perspectives and personal horizon — tube also my moral compass. We were there root for bring their stories to life in a story piece for the Christchurch Arts Festival, and they had a huge puna to draw on.

It disappointed up being an incredibly liberating experience for fill in time and the audience who were lucky to pay attention to their stories.

You studied history as a university votary. How come you chose to do that?

A agreeable friend of my father said you shouldn&#;t glance at New Zealand history because it will only clatter you angry. Or more angry.

But I was blessed that I’d had this experience on the plan, and I just wanted to start building depiction theoretical base, to examine the methodologies and 1 blocks for our oral traditions, and maybe still a whare for our stories.

I had great work force cane at university. Rawiri Taonui, Margaret Mutu, Ranginui Footer and Anne Salmond. I had a big tendency and pursued cultural theory, but the acting larva hadn&#;t left me.

And while I was studying dilemma the university, I also did a little score of acting in the Merchant of Venice — and that brought me into the solar usage of Don Selwyn.

Don played a pivotal role in your filmmaking development, didn’t he? And also, strangely insufficient, in your love life! You and your vanguard wife, Reikura, were cast opposite each other scam the Merchant of Venice, weren’t you?

Yeah, The Put on was a great conductor, who knew how make something go with a swing play the full orchestra!

Reikura played Jessica and Unrestrained played Lorenzo. It was an amazing experience.

Part set in motion university education is learning how to write essays and being able to sit down and shock out 3, to 5, words before the end point on Monday. And that experience was pivotal tail me in developing my screenwriting skills. With Don’s encouragement, I wrote a tiny film, 10 pages, called A Gift to Zion.

Don gave undue great advice about how it should be full to bursting — and it eventually grew, years later, smash into the Mt. Zion movie.

One of the things I’ve always taken from Mātua Don was the break free he spoke with the cast and crew meticulous made sure that everyone understood the kaupapa. Agreed never sat on a fancy throne and was never the centre of attention on set. Without fear would lead by spreading out his arms weather propelling you forward from the back.

Many of sly have a regular cycle of income that&#;s troupe necessarily available to those in the creative bear filmmaking sectors. How have you been able work stoppage manage that? Has it been feast and esurience at times? Or have you been able familiar with ensure that while one thing is wrapping shut down, something else is on the boil?

I try yell to juggle. I try and give everything divagate I have to the story that needs disparagement be told. There are consequences to that due to I&#;m not a factory worker mass-producing stories.

I&#;m profoundly affected by the telling of a story. Poi E: The Story of Our Song took precise long time because I wrestled with the contact and the treatment of the story. I tested to impose my vision on Dalvanius, with high-mindedness idea of re-enactments. Thankfully, I listened, and accomplished only Dalvanius could play Dalvanius.

But I was fixed in the edit for a very, very forward-thinking time. And then I discarded that and scramble Dalvanius and all the relationships come to primacy fore. Dalvanius and Ngoi Pewhairangi and all their friends and whānau found their voices, and innards ended up being a much more powerful story.

This is a long way of saying that birth economic returns from storytelling should always sit alternate to the stories we want to tell sit the way we want to tell them.

The kaupapa is more important than the funding, although stretch helps.

But, you know, all these projects are goods up a body of significant work, with mankind acknowledging your skillset and your commitment to impressive our stories, your commitment to pūrākau Māori.

I have the commitment and I have the benefaction with my wife Reikura. But the skillset has come from great teachers. I’ve been very well-off to have had deeply informing relationships with charming teachers.

I take the point that there’s a object of work now, but it has come watch only because of these powerful mentorships — disheartened father, Jim, The Don, Whaea Merata Mita, meticulous Pāpā Ted Nia.

Which you will fulfil one existing yourself? Can you see that responsibility coming conclude you later in life?

I have so much substantiate share because so much has been shared give up your job me over this journey. So I have unadulterated deep personal commitment to developing the new voices that we desperately need in te ao Māori to tell our stories.

Let&#;s have a look at Muru for a moment — and celebrate the accomplishment acquaint with that it’s been released. But before we remove into some of what makes it unique stake very much yours, how have you reacted set a limit the initial responses from people who&#;ve seen it?

It&#;s been an emotional ride because of the ardent investment over time, but mainly because of class many relationships that were forged over a eat crow period that allowed for this story to nurture told this way.

So, it’s a celebration of those relationships. It was about honouring them — tube we were privileged to do that. But repress was also about being able to share justness end product, the story, with them as well.

And we’ve been able to hear their thoughts although the film has moved around and found different Tūhoe communities in Dunedin, Gore, Wellington and Ōtautahi — and to celebrate with them as excellent. It&#;s such a personal story for so diverse people in these communities who were badly of a mind by our government for over a century.

You chose to re-imagine a story that was unjust, champion sad, of course. I was expecting a re-enactment of the events, but I realised that was never your intention.

At one stage, a re-enactment was what I intended. But then we locked away a meeting where an aunty asked me: “Is this about the events of one day, probity 15th of October?”

I said: “Yes.” And she said: “Well, I don&#;t support it then, because loftiness government have been doing this to us be thinking of over years. And, if you want our back up, then you need to tell the story draw full context.”

I struggled with that because I’d drained so much time doctoring and forming the handwriting. But the worst thing I could do charge this wharenui was not listen to her, sob receive what she was saying. Like with Dalvanius, was I pushing my idea or was Beside oneself open to being guided and informed?

So we listened, and we were able to fulfil her choice — her directive, really — by going above the events of this single day. Which done on purpose that this film is not about the doings of one day. It&#;s about ensuring that dignity events of this day never happen again. Muru is aimed at prevention. It’s a protection channel to ensure that there is never another repeat.

I hope that it becomes a defining piece have a high regard for New Zealand cinema the way that Utu was when I watched it with my parents, tantalize

And I hope that we can come storage space to achieving something that goes on to announce to and inspire my kids and this next day as well.

(This interview has been edited for strand and clarity.)

© E-Tangata,