Content Warning: PG (Contains graphic images of birth) | Available to watch until 24th September 2027
*Please note: this programme can only be viewed if you're in Aotearoa/New Zealand
Whānau 2021 is the latest instalment in a very special documentary series following the lives of whānau who had babies in 2000.
The documentary series revisits them every seven years and in this update, three of the ‘babies’ invite us back into their lives and to their 21st birthday celebrations. They reflect on their upbringings and what it’s like to be Māori in the 21st century.
*Watch the complete series (2001, 2008, 2014) via NZ On Screen here
*Watch the 2021 short documentaries here
The Babies
KaHana Ngawati Glassie - watch here
KaHana Ngawati Glassie Photo: Tūmanako Productions
(Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Porou), turned 21 on 20th July 2021.
We reconnect with KaHana when he is living in West Auckland with his mother Renei and three much younger siblings: Hinerakeimauroa (7), Uruwhakareia (5) and Te Hiringa (2). He’s working long hours as a commercial roofer.
Uenukukōpako Angus - watch here
Uenukukōpako Angus Photo: Tūmanako Productions
(Ngāti Porou, Tuhourangi, Ngāti Whakaue) turned 21 on 10th October 2021
Uenukukopako was born at home in the tiny community of Kennedy Bay in the Coromandel, the fourth son of parents Mereana Maika and Joe Angus.
Mereana had moved the whānau back to here to her papakainga shortly before Uenukukōpako was born.
Pianika Ormsby - watch here
Pianika Ormsby Photo: Tūmanako Productions
(Ngāti Ranginui,Ngāpuhi, Ngati Kahungunu) turned 21 on 16th October 2021.
Pianika was the sixth baby, and a ‘millenium surprise’ for her young Morman parents.
At age 14 Pianika said she wanted to be a Dentist, and right on track, in 2019 she did a Foundation in Health Sciences year at Otago University. Pianika intended to take 2020 as a gap year travelling, but Covid 19 overturned those plans, so she returned to live with her parents in Tauranga.
Producer: Kay Ellmers | Director: Parehuia MacKay
Kay Ellmers is an award-winning documentary maker who has produced and/or directed more than twenty documentaries, with a focus on contemporary social issues and Kaupapa Māori projects. Titles include He Toki Huna – NZ in Afghanistan, Canvassing the Treaty, Pōwhiri: Welcome or Not?, Ngā Tamatoa, Polynesian Panthers – The Legacy, and Framing Māori.
Kay produced and directed all the previous instalments of ‘Whānau’ but during the production period for this update was in a full-time role at the NZFC as Kaihautū, Te Puna Kairangi (Co-Head of the Premium Productions for International Audiences Fund).
She therefore recruited a trusted colleague Kathleen Mantell to direct the long form documentary, and her daughter Parehuia MacKay as Associate Producer, and director for the four episodes of the shorter form rangatahi-facing content.
Kay: “Parehuia was four when I began the ‘Whānau’ series and has grown up with the production as a recurring part of our lives, and the participants as part of our extended whānau. It’s really special to now be collaborating with her as she brings her skills, creativity and a younger lens to directing content for a rangatahi audience. It’s the perfect succession plan to take the project into the future.”
Parehuia is a creative who has worked in traditional and digital media spaces in a number of capacities. Most recently, she has worked as a director/reporter on a digital youth series called Ohinga and a researcher/production on a tamariki news show called ‘News 2 ME’.
She has a growing passion for storytelling and wants to use her skills to create positive change. She celebrates diversity and authenticity in all her work and tries to find new and creative ways to share people’s stories.
“Whānau is a project that is very close to home for me. I was five years old when my mother released the first instalment of Whānau and now 20 years later I'm so glad I got to play a role in this years instalment of the series. This project as it’s name suggests, is all about whānau and that is reflected both in front of and behind the lens.”
Kay Ellmers and Parehuia MacKay Photo: Tūmanako Productions
Director: Kathleen Mantel
Kathleen is an award-winning documentary filmmaker. Over the past 20 years she has made a wide range of short and long-form documentaries that have screened in Aotearoa and around the world. She has directed numerous NZ On Air funded prime-time documentaries for Whakaata Māori, TVNZ1, TVNZ2, TV3 and PRIME TV.
Kathleen Mantel Photo: Tūmanako Productions
Photo: NZ On Air
