The ground-breaking documentary series Tangata Whenua was broadcast on New Zealand television in 1974. It attracted approximately one million primetime viewers, out of a population of just three million, and captured rich details of Māori history, culture, and identity during a period of significant change in New Zealand. The NZBC said the Feltex Award winning series had “possibly done more towards helping the European understand the Māori people, their traditions and way of life, than anything else previously shown on television”.

The six-part series was filmed just after the Māori Language Petition and broadcast the year prior to the Māori Land March and the establishment of the Waitangi Tribunal. We see these issues playing out on the screen, as people shared their experiences and wrestled with questions of identity.

The series was timely, providing Māori with an opportunity to speak for themselves while helping Pākehā New Zealanders understand the Māori people, their traditions and way of life.