July 06, 2022
Stars align for Busby waka doco
The co-director of a documentary on the late Hekenukumai Busby says the stars aligned to allow his revival of Polynesian navigation traditions.
Whetū Mārama- Bright Star won the documentary prize at last weekend’s Maoriland Film Festival.
Toby Mills says the project as taken years as he and co-director Aileen O’Sullivan drew together not only footage he had shot while accompanying Sir Hec on expeditions into the Pacific to build and sail waka, but also material from other filmmakers’ archives.
He says it was like assembling a huge puzzle to tell an extraordinary story.
“He met with the Hawaiians and Mau Piailug from Micronesia and the three of them came together and really revived wayfinding and canoe building together. It was a really amazing point in time when the stars aligned and they came together, and I was lucky enough to spend of 15 years at different times with Sir Hector and filming him,” Mills says.
Whetū Mārama- Bright Star is being taken north this week to be shown to Sir Hec’s Ngāti Kahu and Te Rarawa people, and does on public release tomorrow in theatres around the country.