Chris Huriwai at Cameron Family Farms, which has transitioned from dairy to organic vegetable production.
Chris Huriwai at Cameron Family Farms, which has transitioned from dairy to organic vegetable production.
We are all products of our experiences; it's plain to see in hindsight.
One wonders whether Chris Huriwai's whānau had any sense of the sort of young man they were raising decades ago: courageous, compassionate and deeply connected to the taiao (natural world).
Huriwai has spent the past two and half years working on MILKED, a documentary about New Zealand's dairy industry featuring Dr Jane Goodall, and to which the world will have free access next month.
Directed by Kiwi filmmaker Amy Taylor, it was the most popular domestic film at Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival in Ōtepoti (Dunedin), where it premiered last year.
Its crowdfunding campaign surpassed an ambitious $100,000 target in just 12 days, with much international support confirming its global relevance.
"My wish for this film is that it empowers people to look at the problems we're facing more holistically.
"If you're looking for a solution, it has to encompass everyone within the system and their diverse perspectives. This film is about sparking that conversation," Huriwai said.
The 30-year-old, of Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Porou and Te Ātiawa, seems wise well beyond his few decades.
According to MILKED, the cows in New Zealand create the same amount of waste as nearly 90 million people.
Homeschooled on a lifestyle farm in Ōtaua, the self-described bush kid has always deeply enjoyed being in nature.
"The Mangatawa River was a five-minute walk from our whare. Just about every day, I had access to awa."
His strong spiritual connection to water as a boy would become a clear driving force in his work to protect it as a man.
The family aimed to be self-sufficient, growing much of their own food.
They also kepy many animals, which were his responsibility. He in turn gained a sense of our responsibility to them; the thoughtful young boy with a critical mind began to form his own opinions.
As a young man, Huriwai found himself working in an advocacy role at a Kaikohe's Māori health organisation Te Hau Ora O Ngāpuhi.
"I enjoyed engaging with people, and talking to them about alternative ways of thinking that provided many solutions to other problems."
Like many of us, Huriwai was touched by cancer. He lost his grandfather to prostate cancer and watched a beloved auntie battle breast cancer.
"The reality is that we're not clean. We might be green, but it's just because there's lots of fertiliser going on the grass making it look green": Dr Mike Joy, a freshwater ecologist in MILKED.
These painful experiences led him to openly consider information that is not accepted as fact by all medical professionals.
"The links between these illnesses and dairy consumption are clear; the science is very clear.
"I was ready for this information when it came to me. We need to understand that not everyone is ready to consider it," he said.
Huriwai views these life lessons as the stones on his path to co-producing MILKED, the feature documentary about the sustainability of New Zealand's multibillion-dollar dairy industry.
His evolution into an activist was organic and, in hindsight, inevitable.
"It's a justice issue for me. I want everyone to have access to adequate information so they can make their own choices.
In MILKED, Huriwai speaks to nearly three dozen experts with a wide range of specialities. Among them are several former dairy farmers, including Suzy Amis Cameron, also an Executive Producer, who have transitioned to hemp and vegetable production.
The film's crowdfunding campaign has recently been extended to fund the making of a short film about a transitioning dairy farmer.
Perhaps most interesting is the predicted threat of precision fermentation, a technology that could soon make milk products without animals, using fewer natural resources and at a lower cost.
"Everything in the world is changing before our eyes. We must be open in order to adapt."
"I encourage people to take a step back and see that we always have an opportunity to do better for future generations. The information is there; we just need to be open to change.
"Our ancestors did this when they came to Aotearoa and became Māori, then again at the time of colonisation. Now, we need to be open to change again," Huriwai said.
For more information and to watch the trailer, go to milked.film
