John Dempsey O'Shea was a New Zealand independent filmmaker; he was a director, producer, writer and actor. He produced the only three feature films that were made in New Zealand between 1940 and 1970.
In New Zealand, tangata whenua is a Māori term that translates to "people of the land". It can refer to either a specific group of people with historical claims to a district, or more broadly the Māori people as a whole.
Ngā Tamatoa was a Māori activist group that operated throughout the 1970s to promote Māori rights, fight racial discrimination, and confront injustices perpetrated by the New Zealand Government, particularly violations of the Treaty of Waitangi.
Barry Ronald Barclay, MNZM was a New Zealand filmmaker and writer of Māori and Pākehā (European) descent.
The Maori Merchant of Venice is a 2002 New Zealand drama film in the Māori language, directed by Don Selwyn.
Māori are the indigenous Polynesian people of mainland New Zealand. Māori originated with settlers from East Polynesia, who arrived in New Zealand in several waves of canoe voyages between roughly 1320 and 1350. Over several centuries in isolation, these settlers developed their own distinctive culture, whose language, mythology, crafts, and performing arts evolved independently from those of other eastern Polynesian cultures. Some early Māori moved to the Chatham Islands, where their descendants became New Zealand's other indigenous Polynesian ethnic group, the Moriori.
Wi Kuki Kaa was a New Zealand actor in film, theatre and television. He was from the Māori iwi of Ngati Porou and Ngati Kahungunu.
Merata Mita was a New Zealand filmmaker, producer, and writer, and a key figure in the growth of the Māori screen industry.
Briar Grace-Smith is a screenwriter, director, actor, and short story writer from New Zealand. She has worked as an actor and writer with the Maori theatre cooperative Te Ohu Whakaari and Maori theatre company He Ara Hou. Early plays Don't Call Me Bro and Flat Out Brown, were first performed at the Taki Rua Theatre in Wellington in 1996. Waitapu, a play written by Grace-Smith, was devised by He Ara Hou and performed by the group on the Native Earth Performing Arts tour in Canada in 1996.
Ainsley Amohaere Gardiner is a film producer from New Zealand.
Robyn Rangihuia Bargh is a publisher and a director, council or board member of many organisations in the book industry and other arts-related organisations in New Zealand. Her work has been recognised with a number of prestigious awards including the Women in Publishing New Venture Award (1994), the Te Waka Toi Te Tohu Toi Kē Award (2006) and the Book Industry Lifetime Achievement Award (2018), and she was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2012 New Year Honours.
David Sims is a New Zealand film director. He commenced his career at the National Film Unit, making his first film in 1968. Since then he has directed over 40 films. These films included Rutherford of Nelson (1972), a short film on the New Zealand chemist and scientist Ernest Rutherford's life; Tāhere Tikitiki - The Making of a Māori Canoe - a film following master carver Piri Poutapu as he traditionally made a Maori waka for the Maori Queen Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu; The Truth about Tangiwai (2002) - an assessment of the railway disaster; and Mystery at Midge Bay, which assessed potential Portuguese and Spanish voyages to New Zealand pre Tasman.
Patu! is a 1983 New Zealand documentary film directed by Merata Mita about the controversial 1981 Springbok tour. It follows the inner workings of the campaign against the tour, and captures scenes of violent conflict between police and protesters. It is a significant work of activist and indigenous filmmaking, and of New Zealand filmmaking in general.
Aroha Gaylene Harris is a Māori academic. As of 2020, Harris is an associate professor at the University of Auckland, specialising in Māori histories of policy and community development. She is also a member of the Waitangi Tribunal.
Rob Mokaraka is a New Zealand playwright and actor. He affiliates to Ngāpuhi and Ngāi Tūhoe.
Helen Pearse-Otene is a New Zealand Māori playwright, film actor, author and psychologist.
Elizabeth Anne Hakaraia is a New Zealand film producer and director.
Annabelle Lee-Mather is a New Zealand television journalist and producer. She affiliates to Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Kahungunu and Ngāti Māmoe iwi (tribes).
Nicole Hoey is a New Zealand television producer. She affiliates to Ngāti Kahu and Te Aupōuri iwi (tribes).
