From an episode of Banksia∙Presented by Vanessa Morris
Interview
Banksia: Kath Akuhata-Brown on Film KŌKĀ and Ngāti Porou Language
Ngāti Porou writer and director Kath Akuhata-Brown joins Vanessa Morris on Banksia to discuss her debut feature film KŌKĀ.
Rooted in healing, ancestry, and identity, the film is the first feature to centre the original dialect of East Cape iwi Ngāti Porou, marking a significant moment for Māori language representation on screen. Ngāti Porou is the second-largest Māori iwi (tribe) in Aotearoa located in the East Cape and Gisborne regions (Te Tairāwhiti) of the North Island.
Kath reflects on the twenty-year journey of bringing KŌKĀ to life; an intergenerational story shaped by an unexpected connection between Maori elder Hamo and young person Jo. She speaks on the importance of the Ngāti Porou dialect as identity, the inspiration of her iwi, and the wider reclamation of Māori language and storytelling at a time of deep cultural and political pressure in Aotearoa.
KŌKĀ has screened at the Hawai‘i International Film Festival and Māoriland, where it won the People’s Choice Award, and arrives in Naarm with momentum behind it.
KŌKĀ is screening at ACMI as part of the Melbourne Women in Film Festival.
