Description:

Te Hiringa Hauora/Health Promotion Agency wanted a video to capture Ngā Wānanga o Hine Kōpu; a matauranga Māori antenatal programme run throughout te Tai Tokerau, to form part of their government evaluation. The Spinoff was approached in the first instance.

As well as explaining the Hine Kōpū programme to evaluators in Wellington, the video needed to celebrate and promote ngā wānaga to hapū māmā and whānau in Northland - and ideally other regions where the programme could potentially be replicated. Our challenge was to outline the kaupapa, capture this unique environment where antenatal learning is woven with kōrero, waiata, kai, mirimiri and laughter, and to seamlessly demonstrate “results” which are not easily quantifiable.

Over many pre-production hui, we identified that Koha Aperahama (Ngāti Hine, Ngāpuhi) who runs the wānanga would be our central talent. As well as her unique voice and gift for teaching hine kōpū, Koha’s own story of generational knowledge, presented alongside her own archive, was a personal thread which mirrored the kaupapa of the wānanga. The six pou of the creation story Koha uses as the basis of the wānanga were replicated in the video, providing both structure to the video and markers we could wrap with beautiful footage of mirimiri, taonga puoro and moving portraits of attendees.

The outcomes of Ngā Wānanga o Hine Kōpū were articulated by māmā Tess (Te Rarawa, Ngāti Whātua) and reinforced by her whānau, as they candidly discussed the immense positive impact the wānanga had on her - particularly after the sudden loss of her last child.

Our small, Māori, all-parent production crew of Jess Sanderson (Ngāti Kahungunu ki Heretaunga, Te Ātiawa, Pākehā), Natalie Wilson (Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Toa, Pākehā), Ray Edwards (Whakatōhea, Ngāti Raukawa) and Tipene Rogers (Te Arawa) was assembled with consideration of the special and sensitive environments we were entering (we even had a baby and partner travel with us so feeding could continue) and all were heavily committed to the story.

Crew investment was evident in post as our director elected to retain the reins and edit the video herself while our sound recordist handled mixing - retaining the intimacy of his taonga puoro recordings from the day.

A number of hapū were consulted regarding inclusion of footage of their rohe, as were whānau of the composer of an oriori sung in the video - all of whom gave their support.

Ngā Wānanga o Hine Kōpū video was released online in December 2021 to a lot of happy tears. Feedback to and from the Health Promotion Agency has been immensely positive. The video has reached over 50,000 viewers across multiple channels with an overwhelmingly positive response and most importantly, igniting further kōrero.