10 digital stories screened at the international Indigenous Film Festival in Ōtaki
Mana Pacific Consultant's digital stories were featured at Māoriland Film Festival 2025. Held in the vibrant community of Ōtaki Aotearoa New Zealand, the Māoriland Film Festival is an international Indigenous film festival that takes place annually in March. The 12th annual film festival ran for five days from 26-30 March 2025, featuring 130 films and digital works from 86 Indigenous nations. The theme for the year was "Ko te mauri, he mea huna ki te Moana" which speaks of the life force hidden in the sea.
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While Mana Pacific Consultants was excited to have all 10 digital stories from the recent Rising Stories project in six Pacific nations screening as Rising Stories - Wai Tai Iti, Wai Tai Nui on the Thursday afternoon of the Festival - the real treasure was the opportunity to dialogue as part of a Q&A panel following the showing. The panel included Dr Tracie Mafile'o, Lead Researcher and Producer of the Rising Stories collection; Aburi Filoa, Researcher for Solomon Islands and Director/Writer for the Kwai, Solomon Islands story; and Loha Isaako-Toloa, one of the Researchers/Directors for Atafu, Tokelau story. Discussion included adaptation and relocating planning, the process of doing research within ones' own community and how those from outside the community or country can work in mana-enhancing and Pacific-led ways.
The Mana Pacific team appreciated watching a range of Indigenous films, and interacting with other Indigenous storytellers from Aotearoa New Zealand as well as those who travelled from as far away as Greenland, Hawai'i, Western Australia and Canada. In difficult times such as this, connections between Indigenous peoples gives expression to our collective resilience and builds our solidarity, encompassed in the Māoriland motto of "native peoples, global films".
"Connections between Indigenous peoples gives expression to our collective resilience and builds our solidarity."
