Whina: Bringing Her Story to the Screen
Words By Erin Cutts (she/her)
One of my favourite parts of the mid-year break was going with my Mum to see the biographical film Whina, co-directed by Paula Whetu Jones and James Napier Robertson. Not only was it an incredible film, but it was also a reminder of just how impactful it can be when history is translated onto the screen.
Whina, released in June of this year, is a powerful film that tracks the life of Dame Whina Cooper. Weaving between different key moments in her life, it includes her pivotal time as a Tai Tokerau leader. It depicts the famous hikoi of 1975, when at 80 years old, Dame Whina led around 5,000 Māori land protestors from Te Hāpua up north all the way to Parliament. This effort made Māori land rights a national issue. The film also explores her experience as a Māori woman breaking cultural and gender barriers, as well as her life as a daughter, wife, and mother. Paula Whetu Jones and James Napier Robertson’s film paints a powerful portrait and executes their portrayal of the Mother of the Nation with dignity and humanity.
While some biopics have the tendency to remove humanity from those they are portraying, Whina does the opposite. It portrays Dame Whina in a raw and realistic way. In an interview with Women in Film & Television New Zealand, director Paula Whetu Jones describes how it was important for the portrayal to be “true to Whina and her world, her shortfalls as well as her successes.” This shines through clearly in the film. The film follows her triumphs and struggles, but she never strays from who she is and her vision.
The film also encapsulates a significant amount of our country's history. We are offered an insight into many social changes that took place in New Zealand across Whina’s lifetime. In perhaps one of the most moving moments of the film, archival footage from a 1975 news clip shows thousands of land protestors marching over Auckland’s Harbour bridge. This serves as a reminder that Whina is not just a film, it is very recent history.
Whina demonstrates the power of putting history onscreen and bringing the stories that have shaped both today and the future to life. As Jones states in her interview with WIFTNZ, her aim in making the film was “that everyone in New Zealand [would] have the opportunity to know who Whina Cooper was and what moulded her into the iconic woman she became.”