“Whina” (G) *** and a half

JAMES Napier Robertson and Paula Whetu Jones’ NZ-made film might confuse some people trying to pronounce its title. And good luck to them.

They would belong to the 99.99999 per cent of the world’s population not born Kiwis who get it wrong. Not me. I’ve been happily married to one for decades. And I don’t remember hearing her pronounce that word.

Kiwi-speak pronunciation of Whina is “Feena”, an abbreviation of Josephina given to Hōhepine Te Wake born in the northern NZ township of Hokianga on December 9, 1895. The legend is that, at first, they thought the baby was a boy. She wasn’t. 

The film that Robertson and Whetu (pron. Fettu) have created is built of what some might call bits in the high points of the life of that little girl through two marriages, several children and a collection of public honours – OBE, DBE, DCBE, 20th appointee ever to NZ’s highest civil honour, the Order of New Zealand.

During September and October 1975, at nearly 80 years old, Whina headed a 1100-kilometre Maori land march from the northern tip of the North Island to Wellington, to support the slogan “not one more acre of Maori land”; to demand acknowledgement of Maori property rights under the Treaty of Waitangi (thank you, Wikipedia for that information).

The foundation for this review is based on NZ history. The screenplay combines scripted information derived from records private and public and, in her later years, from TV footage; you’ll have no difficulty working out which is which. Frankly, each stands on its own feet, regardless of subject and origin.

I came away from “Whina” hoping that people will see it for two reasons. Despite its constant to-ing and fro-ing among people, places and times, it’s quite entertaining. Miriama McDowell portraying her in early adulthood and Rena Owen as elderly, don’t muck around. 

First Australians may well feel the film’s unabashed proselytising for Maori interests to be a valid template for modern times. I’ll go to my grave feeling neither conventional nor otherwise about that. 

At all Canberra cinemas