A collective vision: Decolonisation and resisting individualism in Waru. Issue 1 (2nd January 2021) - Williamson, Rachel
ABSTRACT: This article offers a reading of the recent New Zealand omnibus film Waru, written and directed by nine Māori wāhine (women). The film is significant in that it is female-centric, but also told through a specifically indigenous lens. As such, Waru clearly resists traditional ways of looking from the hegemonic spectatorial position, historically assumed to be male and white. Instead, I suggest that the film's status within the omnibus genre – itself an inherently disruptive genre and form – and the collaborative filmmaking process enacted here helps enable a specifically Māori perspective based on collectivity and whanaungatanga (kinship or close connections between people). Ultimately, Waru 's kaupapa (shared vision or philosophy that incorporates action or a plan) is to address the horrific rates of child abuse in New Zealand by considering ways in which we, 'the village', are all to some extent culpable or complicit. However, as befits Māori values, the film imagines and offers a variety of different types of intervention. In doing so, Waru presents a radical alternative to the fierce hyper-individualism of neoliberalism. Consequently, Waru is not only an example of inventive, creative, feminist film making, but also, ultimately, a political act of decolonization.