Film-maker pursued her passion for causes

Merata Mita filmed the Bastion Point occupation drama. Photo / Supplied

Merata Mita, actress, film-maker.
Died aged mid-60s. [Born 1942].

The heart of Merata Mita's work as a film-maker has been described as a push to tell Maori stories in an authentic way.

A co-producer of hit film Boy, Mita died after collapsing in Auckland this week.

Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples called her a renowned actor, director and producer of films. "Once she launched into a career as a film-maker, she broke nearly every barrier known to Maori women," he said.

Such barriers could be formidable.

Broadcaster Joanna Paul met her friend 30 years ago on her first day of work on a TVNZ drama about Maori protesters.

"She was working on her film about Takaparawha [Bastion Pt] and trying to hide her footage from the cop raids [on] her post-production suite all the time."

In the book Film in Aotearoa New Zealand Mita recalled that working for Koha, forerunner of Te Karere, meant a role many refused to treat as legitimate.

She said news bosses told staff that te reo could constitute only 2 per cent of the language used to tell Maori stories. The stories had to be directed at the "majority viewing audience", which she took to mean Pakeha.

Mita, of Ngati Pikiao and Ngai Te Rangi ancestry, grew up in Maketu, Bay of Plenty, the third eldest of nine children. She had a traditional rural Maori upbringing, and recalled watching newsreels when films were projected on to the walls of the local wharenui.

At Kawerau College she taught for eight years and began using film and video to reach supposedly unteachable students, many of them Maori. She worked on her first documentary in 1977 but grew disenchanted with the role of guide on the film about the Treaty of Waitangi. She moved on to film the drama unfolding as the police and Army removed Ngati Whatua and their supporters from Orakei in 1978.

The film Bastion Point: Day 507 was followed by the first feature-length documentary, Patu!, about the 1981 Springbok Tour protests and her feature drama Mauri in 1988.

Dr Sharples says Mita's passion for causes - justice, race relations, Maori history and workers' rights - were revealed in drama, documentary and biography. She also mentored a rising generation.

"Her influence on New Zealand's identity has been profound, and her personality and experience will be sorely missed."

Mita also made documentaries on artist Ralph Hotere (Hotere, 2001) and Rastafarians in Ruatoria (The Dread).

This year she was made a Companion of the Order of NZ of Merit for services to the film industry. She is survived by six children.

- Staff reporters, NZPA