Canadian first nations people and Māori are planning collaborations on indigenous films at the Women in Film and Television (WIFT NZ) summit.
The three-day summit has brought together 30 Canadian film professionals and 60 New Zealand filmmakers to discuss future partnerships.
Māori film maker Julian Arahanga (Ngāti Raukawa,Te Ati Haunui ā Pāpārangi) said it was exciting to collaborate and discuss some of the challenges each nation faced.
“This is just the start of a collaboration with some of our iwi from Kānata (Canada) but it is an exciting time. There are some amongst us who have already made some connections and that are a bit further along before us at Awa Films. This is the first step into co-production with Canada.”
He said Māori and the first nations people connected over their shared experiences and stories.
“I’ve been working on a project on the lost children of Aotearoa and there are similar stories around the residential schools in Canada. In Australia we have the stolen generation so through the periods of colonisation it is very similar.
“I think that somehow sharing and weaving those stories together will help in the healing.”
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