Matariki has been made all the more special with the release of a potent new local film called Ka Whawhai Tonu or 'Struggle Without End'.
Set in Waikato during the New Zealand Wars, the film has landed in cinemas across the motu.
The stellar year for local stories just keeps on delivering, and perfectly timed for this Matariki is the feature debut for Māori filmmaker Mike Jonathon. This is Ka Whawhai Tonu.
It's 1864, the battle for O Rākau in the mighty Waikato, and the desperate final stand for Chief Maniopoto and his people against the colonial soldiers.
It's a true slice of our history, told through the eyes of two fictional teenagers caught up in the struggle - the struggle without end.
Young Haki is borne of a Pākehā father, a soldier, and a Māori mother. He's of both and neither, and when he's captured by the Māori resistance fighters his life is forfeit.
But his connection with Kōpū - the tribal medium to the wargods - will change their path. As war rages about them, the future of their whānau, the tamariki, the mokopuna will come down to them.
Please do me this one favour this weekend - go see Ka Whawhai Tonu on the big screen.
Not only is Temuera Morrison a national taonga, we see wāhine warriors take centre stage alongside the rangitahi, collectively delivering Aotearoa's stories through a powerful Māori lens.
Four-and-a-half stars.
