Merata and Whakapapa: expanding notions of (auto)biography through Māori lenses

Abstract

Through the documentary Merata: How Mum Decolonized the Screen (Mita, 2018), this article discusses how Māori cultural perspectives expand Western notions of (auto) biography. By interpreting the film through a Māori whakapapa lens (a non anthropocentric genealogy), the article demonstrates how the (auto)biographical documentary about Merata displays, simultaneously, a personal narrative and a history of Māori resistence. The article includes the authors’ autobiographical reflections as migrants in Aotearoa New Zealand.