Te Hono ki Aotearoa

In 2010 the waka Te Hono ki Aotearoa was commissioned for the Museum Volkenkunde in The Netherlands. This doco follows its creation - by Maori and Dutch - and the dedication of all involved to avoid crashes of the inter-cultural kind.

"Dutch immersion in kaupapa waka begins propitiously in museum director Steven Engelsman’s desire to get it right and in the affinity he strikes with the master carver Hekenukumai Busby. Given a front row seat from the earliest negotiations through to the handing over, filmmaker Jan Bieringa is alert to the different ways in which so many men on the project, young and old, Maori and Dutch, inhabit the rituals that invest meaning in the work. With all due tact and admiration she marks the generation of something deeply stirring: a taonga destined never to return but to make Aotearoa manifest on European waters." (World Cinema Showcase 2012)

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