A celebration of kiriata Māori for Te Wiki o te reo Māori and an Oscar-winning Māori storyteller helping tell stories about Native Americans on the small screen.
What a taonga the NZ film commission archive is, a rich tapestry of Aotearoa's finest kaihanga kiriata and available at your fingertips.
Among them is Aotearoa's entry for Best Foreign language film, shot entirely in Te Reo, starring James Rolleston, Te Kohe Tuhaka, Rena Owen, which went on to become a TV series, Glenn Standring and Toa Fraser's R-rated actioner The Dead Lands.
Pumping blood to the manawa rather than onto the ground, Ainsley Gardner and Briar Grace-Smith's story of Māori identity, loss and connection, Cousins is a five-star watch.
And who can ever forget Paikea, based on the stunning book from Witi Ihimaera, shot in Whāngārā. Watch or re-watch Keisha Castle Hughes in Whale Rider.
When it comes to the unmissable, new to streaming this week is indigenous storytelling at its finest, with Reservation Dogs on Disney+.
Native American writer/director Sterlin Harjo's eight-episode comedy-drama is populated with a flawless collection of genuinely unique & memorable characters. All indigenous, anchored by the joy that is small-time teen criminals Bear, Elora, Willie and Cheese on a mission to steal and save their way out of their small-town Oklahoma patch to sunny California.
Co-created by Harjo's longtime friend Taika Waititi, who also wrote the pilot episode, I promise you will be just as in love with these Rez dogs as I am the moment you meet them.
