Alex Casey speaks to Mātaki Mai organiser Tarryn Ryan about what the new film festival means for the city.
Just like the clusters of happy daffodils peeping their heads out in Hagley Park, festival season in Ōtautahi feels like it is currently approaching full bloom. Cinema foyers are buzzing thanks to Whānau Mārama: The New Zealand International Film Festival, WORD Christchurch Festival is currently welcoming a wealth of writers, and now there’s a brand new festival on the horizon unlike any the city has ever seen before.
Mātaki Mai is a film festival entirely dedicated to movies that celebrate te ao Māori, beginning during Te Wiki o te Reo Māori at Alice Cinemas in Ōtautahi. Showcasing a mix of classic and contemporary films, the programme includes everything from Utu Redux and White Lies alongside new documentaries I Am The River and The River is Me and Mauri. For the young ones, there’s even Disney’s Encanto in te reo Māori.
“I think film is really underrated as an educational and historical tool,” says Mātaki Mai organiser Tarryn Ryan (Kāi Tahu, Ngāpuhi). Recently finishing her master’s degree, part of which was about local film history, she says movies are the perfect way to celebrate culture. “Unless people are exposed to things outside of their own bubble, they’re never going to see the beauty that lies in other cultures, and it’s so important for us to understand each other,” she says.
Also the founder of community movement Kōrero ki Ōtautahi, which encourages people to meet up and kōrero Māori, Ryan says it has been a long journey for her to reconnect with her māoritanga. Spending her childhood between Ōtautahi and Bluff, Ryan felt as if she grew up outside of te ao Māori. “I try to remain as diplomatic as possible when I say this, but Christchurch wasn’t always the best place to be for a young Māori girl,” she says.
It was only when she returned to Ōtautahi in 2019 after a few years overseas that she began to explore her whakapapa. “That’s when I started reclaiming my reo and my Māoritanga, and thinking how I can use that to whakanui, or celebrate, our voice here in Ōtautahi.” Ryan began te reo classes in 2020, and started Kōrero ki Ōtautahi for her 10 classmates to stay in touch and organise meet-ups. That page now has over 600 members.
The momentum around Kōrero ki Ōtautahi led to Ryan organising a hīkoi for Te Wiki o te Reo Māori in Ōtautahi last year. “I didn’t want it to get seriously big, but we ended up having about 200 of us come out, which was pretty cool,” she laughs. “There was lots of waiata, and we had a school come along, and they did kapa haka – it was really great.” This year, she tasked herself to come up with even more community events for Te Wiki o te Reo Māori.
As a frequent patron of Alice Cinemas, a haven for film buffs in Ōtautahi, Ryan had occasionally booked out their small cinema to play Disney reo Māori films for her rōpu and had long dreamed of a full festival. “I always looked at all the things that are available in Te Ika-a-Māui, and nothing like this has ever been available to me here in Ōtautahi,” she says. “So I just sent them an email and said ‘hey, do you think this could be something that would be viable?’”
It didn’t take long for Alice owner Kerryn Maguire to come back with a big thumbs up. Although some films were tied up with distributors and didn’t make the final cut, Ryan is happy with the final mix of programming. “It’s ended up a really good mixture of entertainment and learning as well as the old and the new,” she says. “It’s great to be able to show films like Ka Whawhai Tonu again for the people that may have missed it the first time around.”
With zero budget, Mātaki Mai has come together thanks to the goodwill of the community, who helped out with graphic design, printing posters and CBD advertising spots. Ryan hopes she can secure council funding for future festivals. “Everything I do is for my love of te reo, and my desire to see te reo thrive here in Ōtautahi,” she says. “I can definitely see a difference now, but there’s still so much work to do.”
For those wondering how they can keep doing that work required, Ryan has a simple answer. “Just show up. That’s what we need from people – be there, and be there in numbers. Come to our hīkoi, speak the reo, even if all you can say is ‘kia ora’. Come to our events, buy our products, support our work. That’s the biggest thing that you can do. And, of course, come to the movies in September.”
Click here to see the full Mātaki Mai programme at Alice Cinemas