The first episode (Tangata Whenua: Waikato) of Michael King and Barry Barclay’s landmark 1970s Maori documentary series Tangata Whenua – The People of the Land is now available on NZ On Screen.

NZ On Screen Content Director Irene Gardiner says Tangata Whenua is one of the most significant titles to be added to the website so far.

The first episode (Tangata Whenua: Waikato) of Michael King and Barry Barclay’s landmark 1970s Maori documentary series Tangata Whenua – The People of the Land is now available on NZ On Screen.

NZ On Screen Content Director Irene Gardiner says Tangata Whenua is one of the most significant titles to be added to the website so far.

“We’ve been working on clearing it for some time. These six documentaries about Maori life and culture were absolutely ground-breaking at the time they first screened, and the series remains significant and relevant."

“The production team behind the documentary series was just extraordinary. Michael King was the researcher, writer and interviewer, Barry Barclay was the director, and John O’Shea was the producer. The fact that we have since lost all three of these legendary figures adds even greater poignance to Tangata Whenua’s re-emergence into the public domain.”

Tangata Whenua won a Feltex Television Award for its script and was praised in the NZBC's 1975 annual report as having “possibly done more towards helping the European understand the M?ori people, their traditions and way of life, than anything else previously shown on television”.

The series first screened on Sunday evenings in late 1974. Around a million viewers watched the documentaries, with Pakeha viewers getting a window into a Maori world still foreign to many New Zealanders at that time. Gardiner says one of the notable features of the series was the close access Barclay, King and their crew were able to get to their subjects.

“There was a real generosity shown to the production crew by the people they were filming.”

NZ On Screen Maori Content Adviser Whai Ngata said Tangata Whenua was a hugely important series when it screened in 1974, but it had also stood the test of time. “At the time, the series was a real break-through in getting Pakeha New Zealanders to see and understand the Maori world. But more than 30 years later, the documentaries work as important historical pieces.”

In his book “Being Pakeha Now,” Michael King wrote that Tangata Whenua broke the “mono-cultural” mould of New Zealand television.

“It gave Maori an opportunity to speak for themselves about their lives. It went some way towards informing Pakeha New Zealanders about Maori attitudes and values, it whetted a Maori audience's appetite for more documentaries reflecting Maori viewpoints, and it opened the way for later programmes, such as Koha and Te Karere, produced by Maori."

The first Tangata Whenua documentary on the NZ On Screen website is the Waikato episode. This episode looks at the Kingitanga (King Movement), illustrating why a movement formed in the 19th century to halt land sales and promote Maori authority has contemporary relevance. Other episodes will be added throughout the year.

View on NZ On Screen.