Ngati

This evocation of the ever-recurring surge of life and death is profound and resonant.

Ngati, New Zealand, 1987

Director: Barry Barclay
Production co: Pacific Films
Producer: John O’Shea
Associate producers: Craig Walters, Tama Poata
Screenplay: Tama Poata
Director of photography: Rory O’Shea
Sound: Robert (Bob) Allen
Art director: Matthew Murphy
Editor: Dell King
Music: Dalvanius
Sound editor: Annie Collins
Assistant editor: Claire Barclay
Production manager: Patricia Murphy

With: Tuta Ngarimu Tamati (Uncle Eru), Ngawai Harrison (Hine), Wi Kuki Kaa (Iwi), Oliver Jones (Ropata), Judy McIntosh (Jenny Bennet), Alice Fraser (Sam Bennet), Iranui Haig (Nanny Huia), Tawai Moana (Nanny Ngaropi), Michael Tibble (Tione), Ross Girven (Greg Shaw), Connie Pewhairangi (Sally), Norman Fletcher (Dr Paul Bennet), Luckie Renata (Dike), Kiri McCorkindale (Sue), Paki Cherrington (Mac)

35mm, 93 minutes, PG–Contains coarse language

A drama of Maori and Pakeha families, Ngati shows how people in a Maori community cope with personal and public crises which threaten to disrupt their lives and traditional ways. Ngati is set in the tiny Maori community of Kapua on the East Cape in 1948. Change is in the air; the old freezing works, the district’s main employer, is clearly on the brink of closure. The town’s concern is equally focused on Ropata, the twelve year old son of Iwi and Hine, who is very ill. Iwi places more faith in the healing powers of the tohunga than in the local Pakeha doctor Paul Bennett. A young Australian, Greg Shaw, visits Dr Bennett and his wife Sam. As he becomes involved in the different ways Maori and Pakeha face crisis in their everyday life, and death, he suddenly discovers he has stronger ties to the community than he expected.

“It’s about being Maori - and that is political [...] political in the way it was made, a serious attempt to have Maori attitudes control the film. Political in having as many Maori as possible on it or being trained on it. Political in physically distributing the film or speaking about it and showing the film in our own way. Political in going in the face of a long tradition in the film industry here and abroad saying these simple things, without car chases or without a rape scene, actually have appeal, maybe it won’t work... I think a lot of the political struggle is to get through to pakehas and Pakeha institutions that this is the way we think, therefore change your manners. This is the Maori world, take it or leave it...” - (Barry Barclay in, Rongotai Lomas, “A First for the Maori Ngati”, Illusions, no.5, 1987)

“Ngati is a deceptively simple low-budget feature that releases the miraculous essence of community strength and joy... Set in a tiny New Zealand coastal town, circa 1948, Ngati has as a pivot the homecoming of a young man Grey Shaw. Unaware of his exact cultural heritage and roots, he becomes absorbed in the heartbeat of the predominantly Maori community, which has time for its youngest and oldest inhabitant even as the forces of economic progress beat at the door. In this interregnum, both Maori and European medicines are used in the attempt to save the life of a young boy, Ropata while his friend Tione keeps loyal watch. Sally, fresh from the city, urges the local men to run the local meatworks themselves when the owners threaten to pull out. Iwi, Ropata’s father, is given the chance to hold back the closure when he assume management of a big sheep and cattle station. Greg’s hosts, the local European doctor Paul Bennett, his wife Sam and their daughter Jenny show their ease in crossing cultural boundaries as a “minority” in the community. Barclay’s character focus settles most on Greg and young Tione, the one in the process of finding his identity, the other about to lose his closest friend. It is the community – the sum of the parts – that predominates, and which is the catalyst for a thumpingly powerful ending which Barclay glides you towards and through almost before you realize it. This evocation of the ever-recurring surge of life and death is profound and resonant... The photography of Rory O’Shea is impeccable, while the soundtrack of Dalvanius would have spin-off hits in its blend of contemporary and traditional Maori songs. — Mike Nicolaidi, Variety, 6 May, 1987

Screenings: Ngati screened on 3 September 2008 as part of a season of Barry Barclay's featuers; 6 June 2007 in the season honouring Arts Foundation Laureates; on 15 November 2006 to acknowledge sound man Robert (Bob) Allen; on 5 & 6 August as part of the NZ Feature Restoration Project at the 2006 New Zealand Film Festival; and on 4 July 2004 in a selection by film maker and actor Whetu Fala.