“We played Taika Waititi’s Boy at an outdoor screening while Taika hung out with our rangatahi. We had very little funding but a whole lot of passion for the kaupapa. We towed our tiny Māoriland caravan between venues as our ticket office, billboard and kapu tī space. At the end of that first festival we dressed up and walked our very own red carpet. The Māoriland Film festival was born.”
Since the first festival, MFF has become a highlight event for the Kāpiti Coast, attracting thousands of tourists - both local and international - and millions of dollars into the local economy. Internationally, the festival is now the largest international Indigenous film festival in the world - both in programming and audience.
Under Hakaraia’s leadership, the success of the MFF led to the formation of the Māoriland Charitable Trust in 2016, and the opening of the Māoriland Hub in 2017 - a centre of excellence for Māori and Indigenous film and creativity. The organisation is now a buzzing ecosystem of activities which include Toi Matarau Gallery, M.A.T.C.H - the Māoriland Tech Creative Hub, national and international youth filmmaking programmes, performing arts programmes and live music and theatre. Libby’s contribution to film and media through this work was recognised in 2022 when she was inducted as a Member of New Zealand Order of Merit in the last of the Queen’s Birthday honours.
Hakaraia said: “It was always my intent to step aside after 10 years - and we built a succession plan to do so. To have my niece Maddy Hakaraia de Young step into the role is something we can all be very excited about.
“Maddy is one of the original Kāhui Kākano of Māoriland; the five of us who started things off. Alongside me and Maddy are Tainui Stephens, and Patrick and Tania Hakaraia. Maddy has spent the past 10 years building the MFF and extending the networks and relationships we have around the world.
“He aroha te whakatō iho, he aroha te hua mai ai. E Maddy tēnā koe.”
Moving forward, Hakarai will assume a role overseeing Māoriland Productions, which has a slate of film works in development including feature films, short films, drama series, animation and documentary.
“My recent trip to the European Film Market in Berlin with one of our projects, is part of our strategy to bring film production back to Ōtaki, creating employment and many other benefits,” she says.
“It’s 100 years since Māoriland Films was established in Ōtaki. Although that company didn’t last more than six months, we’re proud to reclaim both the name and the vision it offered back then, to make Ōtaki the ‘Los Angeles of the South Pacific’.
“For this reason our theme for MFF2023 is an Indigenous perspective of our purpose and reason for being. It sets our kaupapa - Mā mua i kē anō ai mā muri. We look to the past so that the future may be different.
“E rau rangatira mā, e te tī e te tā, e ngā hau e whā, nau mai, hoki mai ki Māoriland.”
In 2023, the MFF is celebrating a decade of Indigenous storytelling with the largest programme yet, representing more than 150 Indigenous nations from across the world.
The festival will runs to March 19 in Ōtaki. Tickets are available via iticket.co.nz and at the Māoriland Hub in Ōtaki.
