In the "O’Town Dreaming" series, "Luafa Finding His Voice" episode captures the journey of Luafa, a young artist from Otara, as he navigates the challenges and triumphs of expressing his identity and heritage through music.

This episode delves into Luafa’s creative process, showcasing how his dedication to music inspire of his families traditional values. Through his journey, viewers are invited to witness the transformative power of music in shaping personal and community narratives, set against the vibrant backdrop of Otara's rich cultural landscape.

It remains one of the most enduring images in New Zealand’s history, a photograph of an elderly kuia holding the hand of a little girl as they walk down a dusty road in Northland.

It was September 14, 1975. Fifty marchers set off from Te Hāpua in the far north to walk 1000 kilometres to Parliament in Wellington. At the head of the march was 79-year-old Dame Whina Cooper and her nine-year-old granddaughter, Irenee.

The hikoi was a protest against further loss of Māori land and the image of Dame Whina has come to symbolise the march and the steely determination of a great Māori leader.
Dame Whina’s cry of “not one more acre of Māori land” inspired the hīkoi, but little is known of those who helped organise it and who accompanied her on the long journey South.

The "Hīkoi: Long Shadow of the March" series features an inspiring episode titled "Rose Raharuhi Spicer," which delves into the life and contributions of Rose, a pivotal figure in advocating for Māori rights and social justice in New Zealand.

This episode highlights Rose's journey from her early involvement in the landmark hīkoi walking along side Dame Whina Cooper. Through intimate interviews and archival footage, viewers gain insight into Rose's unwavering commitment to her people and the lasting legacy of her work in the ongoing fight for equality and recognition of Māori rights and culture.

Dave is co-owner of the cars with his partner Catherine ‘a car lady through and through’.

They take me to another shed. I am hit with ‘sensory overload’ as we enter the two-storey building.

Model cars, commissioned art pieces, old car signs, modern car signs, Ford flags, antique tools, old-school petrol bowsers were all aesthetically placed around an incredible collection of chrome, steel, mirrors and windows that are attached to an eclectic array of American and British classics ranging from the early 20th century through to the 2000s.

The sheer cost, restoration and maintenance of these relics boggled my mind but when you’re living the car dream as Dave and Catherine are, it’s not about cost, or the hours spent maintaining and cleaning them. It’s about a shared love of cars of all shapes and sizes. It’s what they do daily on the Great South Road.

Great South Road is New Zealand’s longest road, starting in Auckland’s swanky shopping quarter of Newmarket and ending in Ohaupo, Waikato Dairy country. Used by or home to car dealers, churches, residences, food outlets, farmers, the homeless, street rappers, volunteers, and schools, it is a road that intersects and connects our past, the present, and future.  

The first iteration of the Māori Economy is often cited as having started when early whalers and settlers arrived, and the consequent trade that took place between the parties.

However, trading for Māori was an embedded part of pre-colonial New Zealand. Trading routes between Iwi and hapu were well established and facilitated the trade of resources abundant in some areas and not others e.g. pounamu, kai moana, preserved birds.

When early settlers arrived, Māori embraced the new and different trade opportunities, and associated technologies. Quickly establishing themselves as the primary manufacturers of wheat, flour and vegetable produce. Māori not only dominated food production in meeting the dietary needs of settlers but also the distribution chain of the produce they were producing – owning and operating the majority of trade ships that transported their produce to the proliferating colonies of Aotearoa, and Australia.
“We were growing food and selling food, specifically for the first wave of Europeans that were coming here. Like most whānau and hapu around the country, we’ve always been commercial” says Kerensa Johnston, CE of Nelson based Wakatū Incorporation.

The 1840s-1860s epoch of Māori entrepreneurship is fundamental to what New Zealand was to become. Māori were directly responsible for the provision of the resources that enabled early settlers.

The tipping point for the Māori economy, for Māori, occurred when the settler population out-numbered that of Māori. What followed was years of dispossession and alienation of Māori from land and resources.