Original subtitles

(bird calls)

(bird calls)

(low rumbling)

(low rumbling loudens)

(distant flute melody)

(low rumble and flute louden)

(flute melody continues)

(paddling oars)

The river...

...is the biggest player in who I am.

I feel that it is my job...

...to ensure that what I've been given, I hand on to others.

(paddling oars, river current)

Greetings to you all!

Welcome to our visitors

from the land of the dreamtime!

Welcome to our sacred river!

Welcome to our sacred river!

Welcome to our sacred river!

Welcome to our sacred river!

Stand up in this meeting ground.

The meeting place of our ancestors.

The meeting place of our ancestors.

Let us acknowledge all our loved ones.

Let us acknowledge all our loved ones,

and our ancestors who have passed away into the night.

And our ancestors who have passed away into the night.

Let us acknowledge your loved ones

and your ancestors who have passed away into the night.

Welcome to our visitors to the meeting place of our ancestors!

Welcome to our visitors to the meeting place of our ancestors!

Welcome to our visitors to the meeting place of our ancestors!

Do you need a cup, Jimmy?

No, you don't need a cup.

Do you need a cup? - Yes.

It's full of dust, you have to give it a rinse.

You need a cup. - Thank you.

You need a cup. -Thanks Ned. Beautiful, love it.

(tent poles hammering)

I think that's a hint to sit down.

Get off, Jimmy.

Anyway, I'm going to do what we call a 'ruruku'.

The 'ruruku' demands notification from our ancestors

and from our 'atua', they are guardians of specific realms,

that we call upon, to come and enhance what we already have,

or help us, through any troubled times that we may need.

OK?

Get off the table.

Come on. This is for eating, not sitting.

Sit down. Okay.

Okay. 'Tena tatou'. (Let's go.) Lets go.

Greetings to us all.

Let us draw on

the supreme sacredness...

...to clear, to free the heart,

the body and the spirit of mankind.

Deeply, calmly.

Rongo, god of peace...

...suspended above us...

...bring us together.

(river gently lapping)

(atmospheric music)

(hushed Māori song)

(river gently lapping)

(chirping of insects)

(bird calls)

4:30 in the morning.

And we listen to the wake-up of the forest.

(bird calls)

(forest sounds louden)

Being Māori, from my perspective...

...why do we need to look after Papatūānuku, or Earth Mother?

She's living.

(bird calls, insects chirping)

She's breathing.

(bird calls, insects chirping)

She is listening to us right now.

(forest sounds continue)

Everything in this world, in our eyes, has a force of life within

We call it 'mauri'.

An unseen force,

(low rumble)

But yet, it is a force that you can feel.

(distant river rapids)

Our trip is about the river...

...being the focus.

About us as people, coming together and bringing...

...people together from across the other side of the world.

It's about saving rivers, saving the planet.

(splashing water)

Never seen anything like this.

(forest sounds)

When we leave one place, we take

something from the 'ngahere'... (forest)

...to our next landing.

We leave it there and grab another one from that place.

So it gives us safe passage from place to place, where we go.

It's really the river that's doing the calling.

The river has always been in charge

because it dictates when this thing happens.

It all just fell into place.

Ned told us, when we came here to make a short film:

I met this amazing artist from Australia...

...and she wants to bring over an elder from Australia.

We'd never met each other until now.

I had heard about Whanganui

and I'd been living with a mob back in Australia...

...who are 'Barkandji', river people.

They taught me so much about how we need to

protect our rivers and how sick they were.

When I got that email from you

...and my name had been passed on,

as someone that's fighting for our river...

...I thought, this is fantastic, I can't say no.

How amazing to get the chance to speak with 'Iwi' (Maoris)

here, on such a special river.

And I said to Justine, I'm so honored

and I would absolutely love to,

but I kind of acknowledge that I'm not an elder.

And while I can speak for what I know,

I don't speak for country and rivers the way our elders do.

So I rang Dad and said, Dad, you've got to come with me.

I had already known that you had a father...

...who was an elder.

Do they realise I'm standing right here?

I feel like I'm in another place!

What I was saying was,

there's something much bigger than all of us.

And we're just players in this bigger play that's happening...

...which is our world.

And the rivers

are probably the genre.

The rivers are the genre and we're all the actors...

...and there's a story.

(muffled quiet melody)

(melody continues)

Just the basics:

Bottom hand down at the 'kakau',

What we call 'kakau o te hoe' (handle of the paddle).

And the top hand is up, closed over it.

Just follow the person in front.

When we say, "hands on paddles",

Then we need to put, just...

...some good bit of energy behind our paddle,

so we can get our canoe up and moving. Okay?

But as far as tipping over upside down,

It hasn't happened yet!

It hasn't happened yet.

There's always a first time, but not today.

We're going to do our 'ruruku' (coordination)

to start our journey, from today.

Let us enter without hindrance

into the space of our beginnings,

into the space of our people, into the space...

...of learning, into the space of conversations...

...and into the long and expansive space...

...of Ranginui our Sky Father.

United. We affirm.

Let's go, eh?

Cool.

Load up.

(hand splashes)

Bye, grandpa. Safe journey.

Bye, grandpa.

Waving out there.

See you, babe.

That feels even better.

To be on the water.

I can feel it all leaving me. Can you?

Yeah. Every time. - I can feel all the...

...all the toxins and everything.

All the unhealthiness, I can feel it all leaving me.

Are you alright there, bud?

Is he there? - Yeah.

So, Brendan and Melissa, you can paddle when you're ready.

(dog whines)

Jimmy.

(oars paddling)

(oars paddling)

So, we've just come out of the Retaruke River...

...and we're now flowing into the Whanganui River.

I feel like I'm home.

(low raspy sound)

(lapping water, muffled sounds)

From the mountains to the sea...

...I am the river and the river is me.

We're indivisible, we belong to each other.

(low breathy sound)

('pūkāea' long horn whistles)

(low horn whistle)

(low horn whistle)

(low horn whistle)

(low horn whistle)

(low horn whistle)

The connection that we have with the mountains

is exactly the same as we have with the river.

(quiet melody)

That spiritual connection that you have with

what we call our ancestors, our 'tūpuna'...

...which are the mountains and the waters...

...and the land that surrounds us.

(melting ice crackles)

(water dripping)

(flowing rivulets)

(water washing over rocks)

(flowing stream, muffled melody)

(beats rhythm with stones)

(waterfall, rhythm continues)

(waterfall, rhythm continues)

(waterfall, rhythm continues)

(onrush of water grows louder)

(loud popping noises)

(flowing river, pops continue)

Depending on what part of the country,

of 'Aotearoa' you come from, (New Zealand)

we all have a mountain that we refer to,

we all have a river that we refer to.

So, when we are speech-making, or identifying ourselves,

it usually goes something like this:

Ruapehu is my mountain, Whanganui is my river,

Te Atihaunui-A-Paparangi is my tribe,

Parikino is my ancestral village,

Ngāti Tuera and Ngāti Hinearo are my subtribes

My name is Reneti Tapa.

So, name my mountain, name the river...

...name the tribal area, and my subtribe as well.

We're going through a bit of a rapid here,

so we'd better break off and meet at the bottom.

See you, Jim.

Jamie.

Jimmy, you jumped ship.

Paddle, paddle, paddle, paddle...

Paddle, paddle, paddle, paddle...

(continues counting strokes)

(water crashing against boats)

(river flow eases)

(echoing water drops)

(echoing water drops fade)

(gentle flute melody)

(gentle flute melody)

(gentle flute melody)

Hook up.

Jimmy, come. - No, stay, Jimmy.

How do you feel when you're on your river, on your 'awa'?

I feel like me.

The jobs that we all lead, a lot of pressure.

For us to be able to come back here

and be on the 'awa',

That brings us right back,

it gives us what we call our 'mauri' back.

That life force that we have, that sometimes gets...

...what's the word, unbalanced.

This is where we come to balance up.

So you'll notice, when we come on the river,

Each day we're on the river, we're getting stronger.

And by the end of it, physically,

we're just - pumping it out!

Wired. Charged! - Yeah, rewired.

Yeah, that's the one.

How are you?

Those canoes have outboards.

Oh yeah. Yeah, we're modern Māori.

Suzuki and Mitsubishi. Good brands.

We've got to get a bit of steam up, people.

Alright, let's give it a whir.

(paddling accelerates)

We're moving now.

Go right side, Stu.

(current accelerates)

There goes the undies.

I just got drenched.

And rest.

How do you put this on?

All the way up.

No, that's the head. - Is that the head?

Brendan, who's the blackfella in my 'waka' (canoe)?

What did he say?

Who is the blackfella in his 'waka'.

Canoe, canoe.

Inside we are black people, even if now, due to colonisation...

...and all this, we may not be dark-skinned anymore.

That doesn't really come into our understanding

of what it means to be a black person.

(gentle rainfall)

Very peaceful. - Yes.

Peaceful.

What's the word for peace in your language?

Peaceful?

We don't have a word for peace because

peace is... that's a European...

- It's like a foreign concept. - "Peace".

Our people were, for a hundred thousand years, like,

In harmony. - Always peace.

There's always peace...

(heavy rain)

(thunder crack)

(rain continues)

You just drenched me. - You just had a shower.

(heavy rainfall)

The water's coming in now.

(dog whines)

I like the terminology, "weatherwise, fine".

Fine.

It's always fine. - Yeah, this is fine.

(boat slides over rocks)

There she is with water.

(boat slides over rocks)

Celebrated too soon.

This is where non-verbal language

comes into play, big time.

Which way are you going?

Wherever our motor is gonna take us.

Yeah, where our motor goes.

Just saying...

The city jail closed down.

I'm retiring from that place. I've had enough.

Been there 28 years.

That's a lot.

This is a holiday for me.

Bigfoot, found the Bigfoot.

Look at the size of it.

There's Bigfoot, we're just taking...

Oh my gosh, it's large.

But it doesn't bite.

(bird calls)

We're going to hit this wall here, look.

Don't lean, don't lean. Just stay seated, don't lean.

One thing I forgot to mention,

if we're going to hit, don't lean, stay seated...

...rather than lift to one side, and she'll flip over like that.

(plays flute melody)

(plays flute melody)

(flute melody)

(flute melody)

I've never seen that before.

They've got little bits of clay on it.

That's why they're still there.

It's the water splashing out like that.

Hits the top and splashes away.

The houses of the little people.

What have you noticed has changed, though?

Obviously the health of the water is better, right?

Oh, definitely.

What are you guys doing now that's helping?

For example, the city area.

In our time growing up, there was just raw sewage.

You flushed the toilet, that's where it went.

All raw sewage went into the river.

All commercial waste went into the river.

The freezing works, when they did their kills,

they went into the river.

Factories that dyed their clothing,

all that went into the river.

So the health of the river was not good.

(quiet, muffled flute melody)

Yet within a hundred years,

the Crown's actions and inactions...

...disenfranchised the 'Iwi' (Māori tribes)

from their relationship with the river.

The Crown, for example, allowed

steamers to ply the river...

...resulting in the destruction of fishing dams.

River gravel was extracted and sold.

The Crown did not properly engage or

involve Iwi in the management of the river.

But the Iwi stood their ground and fought and fought...

...so that their calls for justice...

...were finally answered.

(flute melody, river current)

The legislation recognises 'Te Awa Tupua'

as an indivisible and living whole,

comprising the Whanganui River from the mountains to the sea,

incorporating its tributaries,

and all its physical and metaphysical elements.

(plays flute)

(water rushing)

It recognises Te Awa Tupua as a legal person,

with all the corresponding rights,

duties and responsibilities.

This really is something very special...

...and it's already gaining attention

both nationally and internationally.

This is an agreement between all of us...

...so don't start doing things on your own,

otherwise we'll jump up and down and react.

So nothing can happen. Whitefellas can't do nothing.

No companies can't do nothing.

They've got to come back to you. - Come back to us.

That's pretty powerful.

That's pretty powerful,

You're coming from strength.

Us as the guardians who are looking after it,

like the councils, the district councils,

...all of us who are a part of that,

nothing happens until we're all there and all happy.

And then we have our two river speakers,

Our two members who sit at the right hand...

...with the government on it.

They are probably the backstop if anything goes through.

Now, the law is slowly starting to find ways,

Clumsy, not perfect by any means,

but slowly trying to find ways

to understand that core concept.

And for those 'Pākehā'... (settlers)

...who might find it difficult to understand...

...how we could give legal status...

to an ecology, to an environment,

I'd ask them to just consider why it is, we have in our law...

...the right for corporations to have legal status as a person?

We actually do have, in 'Pākehā' law, something similar.

A corporation isn't a thing.

It doesn't have a separate identity...

...but it does have legal rights like a legal person.

A corporation has rights under the

Bill of Rights Act, for goodness sake.

It's just a construction in our own minds

about how the law responds to an entity.

It is so much more important,

so much more important...

...that we give status, for its own sake...

...to the very thing that gives us life.

And in Whanganui, that is our river.

A small step forward, but a step nonetheless.

The Whanganui River that rapidly descends

flowing and winding its way

to the ocean deep,

once the bathing waters of our elders

who have now departed...

How long was the negotiation period?

The negotiations started back in my grandfather's time,

In the 1930s.

When we talked about the river, we gave it everything.

We wrote songs about it, we did 'haka'.

When we did come up to the tribunals and the Crown...

...we talked with tears, I suppose.

You originate at the headwaters of Tongariro

a snowcapped mountain from whence you came...

But that's all our river's got, it's just...

...irrigation, pumps, pipes, channels, dams, everywhere.

You haven't got it here.

(Ned calls out for the 'Haka')

(river current rushing)

The Māori world is about guardianship.

And the non-Māori world is about ownership.

Some people won't understand.

I mean, if that's yours, then I own that.

But we see it as, I don't own that.

With ownership you can buy and sell tomorrow.

But with guardianship you're there...

..for as long as you have to be.

I'm just the caretaker for a

period of time, while I'm here.

(sombre flute melody)

(flute melody continues)

(drone camera buzzing)

(flute melody, drone buzzing)

(drone buzzing continues)

(sombre melody continues)

(loud drone buzzing)

It was so quiet and peaceful until somebody came along.

You did invite me.

(approaching drone buzz)

(tent pole hammering)

You know, it's catching on around the world.

Not that we did that for that reason,

but others are wanting to do the same...

...which means if they can do it, that's another river done,

and then another river around the world.

And all of a sudden, our rivers are going

to be looked at completely differently.

And when we don't have access to water...

...that's basically killing us.

It's killing our land, killing our ancestral beings...

...killing our river,

which is the veins...

...and the creeks are the arteries, and

the lakes, the lagoons, are all the organs.

They're all the body organs of our

ancestral, spiritual being in the landscape.

Way up the top is where you've got

the cotton industry.

They just pump all that water

out into their private land...

...where they've just dug huge dams.

There's no river flowing down...

...so all those First Nations communities

and farmers, they have no water at all.

We'll put a claim in.

I don't know how, what court. I'll get legal advice.

Where is there a legal avenue that we can put a claim in...

...and say we want recognition?

It's the whole river.

If your whole river, your mobs come together...

...and put their claim in as one: massive power.

Worldwide as well.

2,000 kilometers is your river, is it?

How many mobs?

There'd be up to twenty tribes. Easy.

To have the opportunity to be here

and to see it like this, is like:

Yeah, we can do this for our river.

I'll get more water.

So, what I have here is a 'kawakawa' (bittersweet) leaf.

'Kawakawa' is our 'rongoā', or medicine...

...back in the day for Māori.

We like to mash it up and then just use it as oil.

And we put it on our wounds as well to help us.

Today we can use 'kawakawa'...

...as tea as well.

The longer you cook it for, the stronger it is.

Uncle Ned was saying it gets really peppery...

...so if you like it to be more peppery

and spicy, let it boil for longer.

Sounds like our old man weed. - Yeah.

A lot bigger. - Yeah, it's different.

Stop it, Petr.

For me as a river man...

I'm a river person.

I can read this river.

Not everything, but I can read what I need to know.

I could survive on a river like this here.

I'm a trial-and-error artist. - Oh, yeah?

Yeah, because I've got confidence and know...

...You know what I mean? The end result.

So, I just...

I go rough.

Did you learn your language from a young age

or when you became an adult?

When I became an adult.

We've been using, like, Aboriginal English.

Are kids learning your language again now?

Yeah, I've been teaching them. I'm the language teacher.

I didn't know that. - I'm reviving six languages.

It's hard when there's only one person doing it.

As far as I know, I'm the only

Mutti Mutti speaker in the world.

Semi-fluent Mutti Mutti speaker.

Some groups, particularly in the south of eastern Australia...

...can only revive it from books.

We're lucky. We've got audio. We've got the speaker.

Luise Hercus?

Luckily, she found one of our last speakers of Mutti Mutti.

And then she came to...

...record my mother and

grandmothers and aunties and that...

...and they said no, because...

...if it's known that they're still

speaking language down in the camp life...

...then the kids...

We've already had kids taken.

They'd put you in jail or take your kids away.

Yeah, or stop your rations.

Disgusting.

Very cruel people. Very, very cruel.

I don't think we realise how cruel the colonial...

That's why, when we do meet friends...

...we know. We can tell who our friends are.

Because since we were little...

...we've seen it in the eyes of the oppressor...

...how much they don't like us.

How much they hate us.

So now we're able to quite easily see,

identify our friends, which is quite a...

Alright, what'll I do here?

That eagle is brown.

When I taught language,

do you think I was just teaching language?

No, I was teaching everything.

About the land, the animals, the culture...

...the ancestral stories, everything.

You were teaching non-Aboriginal kids and Aboriginal kids?

Yeah, of course.

(oars clatter, beating rhythm)

grandfather cut bark from the river red gum trees,

They used a stick to paddle the canoe far across the water,

they float along the river and the lakes,

great-grandmother and great-grandfather in canoes...

The non-Aboriginal kids were so fascinated,

excited and they loved the culture.

Some kids were saying, I wish I was Aboriginal too.

(river crashing loudly)

Who's the lovely lady?

Come closer, you'll find out, dear.

He's got a boomerang skim.

This is like the Olympics.

Your wood's really hard.

Must have made strong weapons. - Native wood.

That's hardwood.

All the way along the river, we'll have all these trees...

...and the roots are all sticking out

and they all go that shape.

So there's your boomerangs and there's

your big long fighting boomerangs, all the clubs.

And the wood is that dense because

it's the root. It's so dense.

We just wait for the tree to fall over.

When we come down, this young fella was

out looking for what we call a 'huri rākau'.

A 'rākau' is a stick and a 'huri' is a twist.

You get a natural twist in it.

So he goes out looking for them and he's found a couple.

Probably be ready in a couple of years time maybe.

They're sitting in the bush. He knows where they are now.

The way I see it is, they call out to you.

They call out to you saying, I'm over here.

Exactly that.

A lot of your tribal marks are

your identity, of who you are from.

And usually they have, like,

down the left side is my father's...

...and the right side is my mother's.

They're not symmetrical.

You think, 'tā moko' (tattoo) is nice and symmetrical?

They shouldn't be, because they tell a different story.

This fella's getting done soon.

His 'Mataora' (rapture), the face markings.

They both go, he's got his, he's getting his.

And they're both looking at me...

Yeah, we got a bird...

...that's telling us someone's going to pass.

That's passing.

Same as ours. - You got one of them?

The cultures are quite similar, eh?

The similarities I've heard, over the last two days, is...

...I'm like, fuckin' hell, man!

You know, I thought there'd be lots of things different.

Differences.

But it's the opposite.

There's lots of things the same,

more than there is different, if that makes sense.

(river current, rain falls)

(quiet atmospheric music)

(rainfall intensifies)

(low chanting voices)

(distant, raspy flute melody)

(insect chitter grows)

(flute melody continues)

(music fade, forest noise grows)

(percussion echoes softly)

Give him something. - Shut up, pal.

How could you eat in front of him? Look at him.

"Feed me!"

Yeah, bro. Yeah, right.

Even when I was a kid, when I was little.

I was born in 68, we're talking the early 70s,

they'd still come and get us.

My mum was black, dad was white.

My mum had five sisters.

One of the sisters,

they just took all six kids.

The youngest was a baby, one, and the oldest was about twelve.

Yeah. But it happened here too? - Yeah.

A lot of them are the ones that we have in our gangs now.

They carry the trauma from previous years.

When I was a bit younger, a few years ago,

I started getting into trouble.

Like, I wanted to be cool like them.

I used to see them as cool. Big, scary dudes.

So, I started getting into trouble,

into a lot of fights.

And then one day I woke up.

Ned pulled me aside and he said, 'Mate, are you okay?'

I said, "No, no, I'm not. I'm in a bad way."

He just quietly talked away...

...and just helped me.

From then on, wanting to be...

...like the big bad guys, just went away.

I wanted to be a guy that somebody...

...can come to if they needed help.

Your young fella there, I've got a fella at home just like him.

-Yeah. He's my right hand man.

I've had him since birth.

One of our old ways is the first-born child

from your eldest daughter or son.

They give you their first child.

She said: here's your Christmas present

for the next hundred years.

Here you are.

In other people's ways, I suppose

that would seem strange...

...giving your child away, your first-born child.

But because we still live close together...

...the birth mother and birth father...

... are maybe in the next house.

But as far as handing on traditional values,

that's who we start with.

Have a good day.

(fast-flowing current)

(distant bird call)

The water tastes good, brother? - Yeah.

Up there? - Yeah, very good.

Everything that falls into the 'awa' brings

a journey of life, regardless of what it is.

I love that idea that if you take something,

you give something back.

What if you don't have anything to put back in?

It's not always a physical thing.

It could be a 'ruruku' (ritual) or acknowledgment to the place.

People say, how do you do that?

I say, you give it your essence, your 'mauri' (core).

My 'mauri', my life essence, I give to the river.

(oars paddle gently)

(gentle atmospheric music)

(muffled paddling)

A 'hoe' (paddle), to me, is inscribed with values.

Like, carved into it.

(muffled paddling continues)

You can't see them, of course.

I believe that each time I paddle in the river,

I am bathing them...

...in the water.

(strong paddling)

And each time I hold them up,

I'm holding them up for the world to see.

(quiet atmospheric music swells)

(current accelerates)

Look at Petr, all squished up. - He's warm, Jimmy's warm.

Hey Jimmy, we've got plenty of room.

I'm gonna take a photo.

Ah, Jimmy...

Yeah, baby!

(flute plays gentle melody)

(gentle melody continues)

(gentle melody continues)

(gentle melody)

(gentle melody)

(bullroarer accelerates)

Let me say this, so you remember:

I can feel the river behind me.

It's hard to explain the feeling,

but I can feel the river behind me.

It's the same as when I'm walking through my country...

...I can feel my ancestors behind me.

Like a strength behind me.

'Wungerwil pathaima', a strong feeling.

Strong, that's what the 'awa' there is.

That's what it is, a strong feeling.

It's not there.

It's there.

(wistful flute melody)

(wistful melody)

(wistful melody)

(thundering outboard engine)

(engine noise recedes)

(cane resonates)

(dog whimpers)

When we think of how...

...the way our Aboriginal people are treated in Australia...

...by the Australian government...

...and the...

Oh, there they go. Look at that.

(outboard engine roars past)

But, um...

You know, there's a back story.

There's hidden secrets, hidden history

that they don't want to be known.

Not even within the country itself...

...to its own citizens.

Another one.

(loud outboard motor approaches)

(whooping and cheering)

The colonisers came to the rivers

and looked to take over the rivers.

And that's where our people were living, on the rivers.

And that's where the conflict,

the massacres and the conflict and the wars...

...the Australian wars, the first wars that Australia...

In Australia, it's the 'Australian Wars'.

The frontier wars, as we call them.

And one such example is when they would

get the babies - the colonisers.

The settlers would get the Aboriginal babies...

...and dig holes in the ground...

...and bury them babies in the ground...

...with their heads sticking out and they would...

...ride on their horsebacks with their rifles...

...and knock the babies' heads off...

..with the butt of their rifles.

(rising wind)

So every opportunity that I get...

...I'll tell the truth. Truth telling.

(wind blows hard)

(wind strengthens)

(wind blows hard)

(wind blows angrily)

(wind blows furiously)

(wind noise recedes)

(river gently lapping)

(plays gentle melody)

(melody continues)

(melody continues)

(river runs, melody continues)

(gentle river current)

Have you had your portrait done before?

No.

Never sat still enough.

(pencil scribbling)

I've got a friend who does 'tā moko', (tattooing)

tribal drawings on the skin.

He's the one that has done me from my feet, right up...

...my backside up my back, and the last part of it...

...was to do my face.

Even in the late, early 1800s, 'tā moko' started to disappear,

because that was the time when heads were

taken for trophies and sent overseas.

So they could be used as a piece on somebody's mantelpiece.

I wouldn't put one on either, because

that's what would happen back in those days.

And then it went through a process of,

a lot of our men then started to wear it,

but they were the ones that were in the justice system...

...so that was their way of saying to the Crown...

...to go get lost!

So they started to wear the homemade one, I suppose.

But it still told a story of their lives.

But then it got taken into the gang culture

where it was used to frighten people.

To make you look the meanest of the mean...

...so you could frighten people, threaten people with it.

But that was never ever what 'tā moko' was all about.

Can you make my nose straight?

The 70s wasn't a very nice time...

...for us.

We'd go into a shop to buy something

and then we'd get told to wait outside.

Until all the customers had left,

and then we'd go inside...

...and we'd get followed around the shop by the shopkeeper.

Because we were going to steal something.

If you knew my father, you'd steal nothing.

But again, it wasn't very nice.

But my father was a very strong person.

He made sure we just carried on with life.

He came back from the Second World War.

A returned serviceman in the 28th Māori Battalion.

He ensured that we didn't have a military life.

But we were honest.

And we'd keep to our word.

And then as we got older, we'd go to college.

And then you had to learn French and learn Latin as a language.

And here we are, Māori,

if we wanted to learn our own language...

...we had to do it at lunchtime, during playtime or break time.

So again, it was another shock.

But thankfully, we were still able to talk...

...because Dad would talk and Mum would talk...

...in 'Te Reo', in our language.

Jimmy.

Leave it.

(sighs)

Tying my knot.

Can't leave you at home, eh?

No, you'd better not, you'd get into trouble.

Check, check. - Check.

Sound check.

OK I'm a corrections officer,

been in the corrections department for 28 years.

I went straight into high security.

It nearly broke me when I was in there.

Only because I could see what was coming in,

and I knew them.

It's like they're ten times around,

they just keep coming back.

I'd talk to them...

...trying to see what the problem was.

It's not even my job.

But, yeah...

So I'm there to help.

I was like a wire ready to snap.

I mean, every day in high security, I was at war.

I was on, like, war party all the time.

It's not nice in there.

(bird calls)

I really don't like talking about it.

My wife doesn't even know what it's like.

She just sees a change in me and doesn't say anything.

'What happened?' She'll go. And I'll go, oh nothing.

I can't really talk about it.

I could have had about four or five scraps in one day.

Just with prisoners.

When I go home I just want to sleep.

(river flowing gently)

When somebody's not quite well, not quite right,

we call that a 'mamae'. (pain)

It's a bit of a burden or a load, carrying a load.

That's for sure.

Ned, you said Stu's not a talker.

I'm not really. - I'm wrong.

We're in the right place. - Yeah.

Honestly, we're in the right place, at the right time.

That's why I bring them on these things here.

We look after each other.

That's why we feel young all the time.

Not even!

Until you wake up in the morning

in your tent and you go like...

(makes struggling noises)

Errrr! Hey, Jimmy!

(dog barks)

(blows on fire)

(blows on fire)

There's a very popular TV series in Norway...

...and all it is about is what's

the best way to light a fire.

A whole series?

Slow learners!

What do you have, slow burning matches?

It started with one broadcast, 24 hours.

And they were only talking about wood.

From the tree to when it was sawn, to when it was cut...

...and how you should stack it, and how it would dry.

And it was the whole day, the whole night,

and everybody was watching.

All of Norway. It was the most popular show ever.

And now you got no trees in Norway.

Just saying!

So be careful, because he's here now.

It's a take-over. They really want our trees!

You can have all the pine trees.

Yeah, you can have all the pine trees.

(bird calls)

Amazing. What an amazing bird.

You'll hear them.

What bird is that? - Kererū. (pigeon)

Brought some friends here, look. - Yeah, sure.

Come over and join us.

Sorry we're crashing your film shoot.

Connor.

Sophie.

Welcome to 'Te Awa', to 'Whanganui' (gulf).

The woven waters...

...is what's coming to my mind, is how...

...another brother from another mother,

talking about land,

has come over to take something from this river...

...so they can start the journey on their river

about personhood,

giving their waters the same legal rights,

Western world rights, I suppose,

so they can start the journey of looking after their river.

So, I just want to welcome you all, from wherever you are.

We've got many nations here tonight.

We, the Māori.

You, the Tati Tati.

And you, the Canadian.

'It's the United Nations here.' - Is it? Oh, well.

Let's go around the circle and say

who we are and where we're from, then we'll know for sure!

Good day I'm Sef, I'm from...

... the southern part of Germany, called Bavaria.

The river where I was raised was called the Lech...

...and it goes into the Danube, into the Black Sea.

I'm Riikka, I'm from Finland, the country of a thousand lakes.

And the water I'm next to is

Lohjanjärvi, which is the Lohja lake.

I thank you for this opportunity, this is amazing.

I'm very thankful for this moment.

Hi, my name is Ivan, I'm from France.

I'm glad to be with you all.

And something I learned on trail is:

Face to face.

Man to man.

It really marked me. It means, we're all different,

but we're all equals.

And if we continue to act like this,

we will build a better world.

Flow, my ancestral river

from the mountain in the domains of Tangaroa...

We've come a long way, we've still got a long way to go.

You've got a long way to go, but each step you take...

...we've got a saying in our language:'Iti nei, iti nei.'

'Piece by piece', it will happen.

You have rivers and lakes and seas in your own country.

Go home and look after your water.

So, fight hard for that, for yourself,

for your families, for your children.

(Maori song continues)

(buzzing drone)

(tense, quiet flute music)

It's funny. Whenever I'm coming out of one of these voyages...

(forest sounds, river flow)

...I start to dread the moment where we return to reality.

When you get phone reception and your phone starts beeping...

...and the emails start flooding in...

...and slowly you move away...

... from this really special, natural...

...simple life...

...into this very dense, noisy and complex reality.

(quiet, tense flute melody)

(flute melody loudens)

(electronic pinging)

Since I met all of you,

I wish we had a similar project in Quebec...

...on a river that is very important to me,

the Petit-Mécatina river.

It's one of the next rivers that will be

swept away by a hydroelectric project.

It could be a way to come together

to see what's more important:

Produce ever more electricity or...

...find a shared space in nature

before it's too late

and there are no more rivers like this.

See you later, yeah? - See you later!

Have a good day, brother.

Brother from another father.

(gentle river flow)

We have so much to learn from indigenous cultures...

...who have lived on the land for an eternity.

And it's that information that we need,

that is going to save us. Nothing else can, really.

I think what we need is more

non-indigenous people becoming advocates.

Because especially in Australia, we're outnumbered.

We're only 3 percent of the population.

I do see a shift in my generation

and younger people my age,

that non-indigenous people are

starting to see the connections.

(steady paddling)

Especially because of

the environmental issues that we're all starting to face.

So I think there is a slight shift.

(fast-flowing current)

But I think we can't just expect First Nations people

to be the ones leading the front

every single time, all of the time,

because it really wears us out.

Keep going.

(fast flowing river)

(distant voices over PA)

But really, we need other people,

we need non-indigenous people...

...to be the advocates for us and with us.

(tense singing in Maori)

(rhythmic popping sounds)

But we talk about:

'We have to turn to First Nations people...

...because they are going to save us."

But what about all them?

(bird calls, animal noises)

What about... They're trying to tell us.

All the birds, all the animals, all the fish,

every living thing is trying to tell us.

Let's go to them.

(bird calls, insects chirping)

(water laps gently)

(bird calls louden)

(gentle breeze, calm river flow)

(bird calls)

(mimics bird call)

(bird replies)

(mimics bird call, louder)

(bird replies, louder)

(mimics bird call)

(louder bird calls)

(mimics bird call)

(mimics bird call)

(bird replies)

(different bird calls)

Greetings, old people.

(different bird calls)

(insistent bird call)

(wings flutter)

(rustling wings)

(bird calls)

If you sit and listen...

...you'll hear the country singing.

All together.

(growing insect buzz)

Intertwined. In harmony, in sync.

(fast water flow)

(stones scraping together)

(stones scraping together)

(scraping sound starts fading)

(eerie, muffled rippling chime)

(eerie chime continues)

(chime continues, lapping water)

(lapping water)

(chime gradually fades)

It's like our weaving and how each individual strand...

...yes, it might be an individual strand...

...of that one particular reed...

...but it's weaved together with all these...

other different elements, to create...

...what it is that we're weaving.

(insects buzzing)

And that's the same as...

...country, and people...

...and plants, and animals, and water.

Everything represents...

...one small, tiny little piece...

...in this larger weave.

Everything intertwined, that bird up there...

...and that little thing there in the grass making noise...

...that has its whole dreaming story, creation story.

(buzzing bees)

And it relates.

(buzzing bees, bird calls)

We call that in our country the songlines.

And that's what we hear on country,

we hear the songlines that come together.

And it's like an orchestra.

(water flowing, animal sounds)

It might be silent.

It might be the wind or the water.

(lapping water)

(insect stepping on plants)

(waterfall rush)

Just go to your river and listen to your river.

This is not goodbye.

It's just the start.

Yes...

(eerie flute melody)

(distant crashing surf)

(sea birds call)

(long horn sounds)

(long horn keeps sounding)

(distant music, horn and voice)