"One Land", TVNZ Sundays

Community Larp discussion
#1

This TV series is one of those “plonk modern day people in a historical setting and see what happens” sort of things. For those of you who don’t know, they have taken one Pakeha family and two Maori families, and put them into an 1850s setting to see how they cope living and interacting as they would have done back then. This was interesting to hear about as I had some recollection of exactly such a scenario (Maori/Settlers in 1850s) being suggested in the past as a LARP scenario. What they are doing in this TV series is, in effect, a LARP (in my opinion, at least).

However the bit I really didnt like was that while one of the Maori families is ‘authentic’ – IE, very much in tune with Maori culture, speak fluent te reo (only) and both know and live the culture inside-out, the second Maori family is completely the opposite. They don’t even understand a word of te reo and know almost nothing about the culture, despite being genetically Maori. To me, this messes everything up as they don’t know how they should behave, and cant even communicate with the rest of their mini-tribe! I think it totally confuses interactions with both the Pakeha family (since they now speak the same language) and also with the ‘true’ Maori family (since they can’t communicate, and dont know whats expected of them). Still, all families seem to be very easy-going and willing to make it work.

What I did like was the lengths gone to in order to get authentic costume, props and environment; a super-immersive LARP if there ever was one.

Anyone else have any thoughts on this program? If you haven’t seen it, I have the last episodes on TiVo and can burn it to DVD for people that want to watch.

#2

Why have they taken a Pakeha family - wouldn’t it have been more sensible to take a New Zealand European family?

#3

I was probably being unclear. The show refers to them as Pakeha, so I did also – they are NZ European from down near Christchurch, I believe. I was under the impression that ‘Pakeha’ means ‘of European descent’ and hence includes not only Europeans but also non-Maori New Zealanders. Not sure where Asians come into it though - do they count as Pakeha as well or not, and if not, then what? Just curious.

#4

Technically Pakeha only refers to British europeans. Any one not falling into either: Maori or Pakeha are classfied as tau iwi.

#5

I think you’ll find it means different things to different people. To me it means non-Maori resident of New Zealand.

#6

Derrik: In which case what are Tau ini?

#7

Tau iwi is the superset term for “foreigner” / “person of foreign descent”.

Pakeha are a subset of tau iwi, and refers to Europeans.

Given that the British make up the majority of Pakeha, it is understandable to conclude that Pakeha means British. However, there were small groups of colonists from other European countries. IIRC France had settlers in Akaroa, Germans settled near Motueka, and there were other places and nationalities as well.

I’m with Steve, selecting a Maori whanau who don’t speak Te Reo and don’t have any cultural understanding seems strange - it would have been unheard-of at the time. The producers probably thought it would create conflict or tension - key aspects of a good larp, BTW :wink: - and thereby make the programme more interesting.

#8

This week’s episode was interesting as the 21st-century women on the pa started to take charge despite this not at all being 1850s behaviour. This reminds me of our game of Og all that time ago when we had female chiefs (though we were not exactly aiming for historical accuracy there!) Meanwhile, on the settlement, the males were being emasculated by their inability to successfully hunt or fish and the mother by her inability to cook edible food.
In the ‘real’ 1850s of course all the settler women were able to cook and the men to hunt, so it would not have been quite so difficult for them. The Maori families on the other hand not only started with more food but are already experienced in fishing and collecting shellfish…
It seems that (probably in order to create conflict and improve the larp, as Mike says) they have made the people unprepared like this - the settlers unable to cook/hunt/fish, the Maori unable to communicate and causing unwitting cultural offense, and so on. However I would have expected both Maori families to be able to speak te reo, at least, and the communication problems be between settlers and maori, rather than between Maori families.

Unsurprisingly I note that all the fathers are enjoying themselves and the teenagers hate it :slight_smile: