On The Dead Lands as a form of Decolonisation

The 2014 film The Dead Lands is the second ever major feature film to be completely in te reo Māori, the first being the Māori Merchant of Venice. This is just one of many reasons why I see The Dead Lands as a power utterance in a dialogue occurring in New Zealand about the place of our Tāngata Whenua. It is a piece of Fourth Cinema that ‘talks in’ and ‘talks out’ at the same time and is an important film in the processes of decolonisation in our country.

Indigenous languages are fundamental and play key roles in processes of decolonisation, which are the efforts to undo lasting effects of colonisation. Decolonisation encompasses indigenous peoples actively creating their own spaces where they are able to control representations of their own. One way to do this, for Māori, is to construct media that are entirely in the reo, with no regard for English, the language of the colonisers. This is successfully achieved in The Dead Lands which features the reo as we have never heard before. Journalist and fluent speaker of the reo Scotty Morrison, who you may recognise as presenter of the news show, Te Karere on Māori Television, was given the task of translating the script into te reo Māori. He noted that he “had a lot of nights and days needing to research around it as well, as [he] was asked to do a 16^th-Century style language. That kind of language isn’t readily available, and I relied on ancient chants to gauge on its style and poetic prose” (NZ Herald article). Morrison worked with other experts of the reo to create a version of the language that would have likely been spoken in the temporal setting of the film, before contact with Pākeha. He searched through old karakia and waiata to revive old words that would have once been used prevalently (Waka Huia special).

The fact that the film is entirely in te reo Māori is instrumental in its ‘talking in’ to the Māori community. A media texts talks in when it is made from within the community for people within the community, with a conscious understanding that they share knowledge and experience. Most of the people involved in the production are of Māori descent, including actors James Rolleston, Lawrence Makoare, Te Kohe Tuhaka. Because of the understanding of shared knowledge involved in ‘talking in’, some aspects of the Māori world are not explained or clarified such as the oratory nature of greeting strangers into the whenua. At the same time, the film ‘talks out’ with its inclusion of English subtitles. Texts that talks out are those made from within the indigenous community for outsiders, to either educate or inform people of the indigenous peoples’ way of life. The Dead Lands talks out through its exposure of the spiritual nature of Māori stories, using the subplot of Hongi’s relationship with his grandmother and their conversations in the spiritual, dream-like sequences.

The production of the Dead Lands also respected tikanga Māori, the culture, customs and traditions of the Māori people. In an interview with Flicks.co.nz, producer Matthew Metcalfe talked about the production process behind the film: “Are we respecting that this is a Māori world, and are we respecting the mana of that story? That’s really important. Every day we have a karakia. Every time we go to a new location the tribal elders come onboard and bless it. It’s really important that we imbue the film with a sense of ‘this is the Māori world’”. Through the daily karakia (prayer) and the involvement of various Māori iwi, the film is an important piece of Māori media and shows that it is possible for Māori to tell stories about themselves. In addition to all of this, the film is a badass action adventure flick and just a straight up good time.

References:

·      NZ Herald article: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-post/news/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503437&objectid=11349886

·      Waka Huia special: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqaQ9b7VSOs

·      Flicks interview: http://www.flicks.co.nz/blog/news/why-you-should-be-excited-about-maori-action-film-the-dead-lands/