Film reveals more than century of island history

Film dating back a century has been unearthed to screen as part of Pasifika.

The New Zealand Film Archive has prepared the material, which stretches back to scratchy Fijian scenes in 1902.

The earliest footage is silent, but plenty includes sound such as a New Zealand national film unit excerpt about the Samoan independence movement, which was filmed in Apia in 1947. It shows a United Nations delegation meeting with Samoan chiefs to determine the wishes of the people regarding independence.

In the footage banners are waved reading "Good governance is no substitute for self governance" and "Government of the people, by the people, for the people".

A travelogue on Fiji filmed in the 1950s has the commentator remarking on a scene where women are washing clothes in a river.

"It is wash day. What, no Rinso!"

Later, after dancing, he says: "They turned on a mighty good show for us."

Silent footage of the Cook Islands in 1945 shows the opening of the Rarotonga aerodrome with a plane's nose covered in a huge lei.

Footage of Samoa in 1925 shows huge "robber crabs", which climb coconut trees, and an Apia waterfront shot shows a distinct two-towered church building, which is a landmark to this day.

There is also an eight-minute segment filmed by the National Film Unit of the 1969 coronation of Tonga's King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV, which was attended by more than 2000 guests including Prime Minister Keith Holyoake and the Duke and Duchess of Kent.

It shows a grand feast with hundreds of cooked pigs and comments on the King's "almost miraculous" acceptance of modernisation.

And 1970s life in Tokelau, recently in the news for rejecting a proposal to become self-governing in association with New Zealand, is shown in a 10-minute excerpt of another film unit production.

In a telling comment, viewers learn how isolated Tokelau had pleaded for Britain to annex the atoll group in the late 19th century.

The film describes how by 1970 there were "too many mouths to feed" on its southern Fakaofo atoll with 800 people struggling to live on a 2ha island.

Finally a Kaleidoscope programme shows a young Albert Wendt surveying the tradition of story telling in Samoa.

The writer and educator discusses Robert Louis Stevenson, the tusitala (writer) who made Apia his home, and Wendt's grandmother Mele Tuapepe, who he rates as the best storyteller he ever knew.

Wendt also discusses the romanticised notion of a Pacific paradise and concludes it is a myth.


Screenings
Friday, March 17: Te Wananga o Aotearoa, 15 Canning Crescent, Mangere.
Wednesday, March 22: Otara Music and Arts Centre, Bairds Rd.