New Years Viewing on MTS

New Years Viewing on MTS

Mon December 27 To Sun January 2

Meningitis Scare For Teen Couple And Newborn On Pepi

The heartache and trauma of a two-week old baby with meningitis is revealed on Maori Television’s parenting series PEPI this week as teen parents, Kataraina Davis and Jerome Cowley, cope with their baby Psalm’s sudden illness. (Tuesday December 28 at 8.00 PM).

PEPI is a reality series screening on Maori Television at 8.00 PM on Tuesday nights that traces the highs and lows of four first-time Maori parents during the first year of their babies’ lives.

For Glen Innes teen couple Kataraina and Jerome, the welcome of baby Psalm into the world has become a devastating experience as they camp out at Auckland’s Starship Hospital this week in the wake of baby contracting meningitis.

Meningitis is an infection of the fluid of a person's spinal cord and the fluid that surrounds the brain, caused by a viral or bacterial infection. In baby Psalm’s case, she has contracted bacterial meningitis which is generally more severe than viral meningitis as it can result in brain damage, hearing loss or learning disability.

During the programme, viewers will be shocked as baby Psalm struggles with blinding migraines, soaring fevers and an intravenous neck operation to administer life-saving antibiotics, while Kataraina and Jerome admit to feeling like helpless bystanders.

The race against time is pertinent and there are some golden lessons to be learned for all parents of newborns in order to detect the early signs and symptoms.

Says Starship Hospital paediatrician Liz Wilson : “One of the first things Kataraina noticed was that Psalm’s cry was different and I think that’s a really important message for parents with new babies. The difficulty with meningitis in this newborn period is that the signs can be really quite subtle, and it’s much easier in older children than in adults to notice the classic symptoms of fever, vomiting, headache and neck stiffness. But in little babies, you get none of that. Instead, they may just not be quite right, they may then get a fever and may vomit, but irritability, change in cry and generally being very unsettled and inconsolable is a sign that there might be something going on.”

The screening of the PEPI meningitis special is particularly timely as the Ministry of Health undertakes its national roll-out of the MeNZB vaccination programme, starting in Auckland and Northland. Ministry of Health statistics state that in 2002, a total of 557 cases of meningococcal disease were reported in New Zealand (the cause of meningitis and septicaemia), at which the highest rate of disease occurred in infants aged under one year. Furthermore, for Maori, the risk is doubled as one in every 117 Maori children contracts the disease, compared to one in every 438 children of European or other ethnicities.

For baby Psalm, the swift reactions of her parents have enabled her to receive the essential medical attention needed to curb the effects and save her life. Constant check-ups and close monitoring of her hearing, temperature and head circumference to ensure no swelling have become unwelcome additions to Kataraina and Jerome’s new parenting routine as they cope with an emotional and fragile 16 days in hospital.

A must-see episode, PEPI will screen on Maori Television, Tuesday December 28 at 8.00 PM.

PUBLICITY RELEASE FOR RELEASE WEEK MON DECEMBER 27 TO SUN JANUARY 2

MAORI TELEVISION DEBATING SERIES TO AIR FINAL

The art of inter-iwi and inter-roopu debate is drawing to a close this week as the best te reo Maori-speaking team in the country is decided on the final of TAUPATUPATU on Maori Television, Sunday January 2 at 8.00 PM.

After six weeks’ of vigorous debate, the final contesting teams – Ngai Tuhoe and Ngati Porou – go head-to-head to thrash out an important moot – Auahi Kore – He Oranga Tinana (Smokefree – For the Health of the Body).

Representing Ngati Porou are well known Maori orators Waldo Houia (Senior Te Aka Reo lecturer at the University of Waikato), Vapi Kupenga (respected Ngati Porou kuia) and Bailey Mackey (Maori Television Executive Producer of Sport).

Their impressive te reo Maori and debating skills are matched by the talented Ngai Tuhoe team, including Tame Iti (Tuhoe ambassador extraordinaire), Orini Kaipara (Cyberworld presenter) and Matiu Tarawa (Maori actor).

Their skills will be picked in fine detail by TAUPATUPATU judges Te Kepa Stirling (University of Auckland facilitator), Tilly Reedy (prominent educationalist) and Quinton Hita (Maori actor / author) as the winning team is crowned.

Although the programme is screened in full te reo Maori, English language sub-titles are shown for the benefit of all viewers.

Catch the final of TAUPATUPATU on Maori Television, Sunday January 2 at 8.00 PM. Ends
PUBLICITY RELEASE FOR RELEASE WEEK MON DECEMBER 27 TO SUN JANUARY 2

L.I.P.S. NEW YEAR’S SPECIAL

New Year’s Eve 2004 will only happen once – so start your countdown celebrations with Maori Television’s L.I.P.S. (Locked into Pacific Sound) this New Year’s Eve, Friday December 31 at 6.00 PM.

The one hour show will feature the best of Maori and Pacific Island music from 2004 including sounds from Nesian Mystik, Dam Native, Dubstar, Recommended Dosage, Katchafire, Feelstyle, Misfits of Science and Scribe.

L.I.P.S. presenter, Te Awanui Reeder, says he can hardly believe how fast the year has gone.

“It’s been great working with the Maori Television crew and watching the talent come through during the year.” says Te Awanui. “The quality of the music clips in Aotearoa gets better and better and I feel we have helped do some of that with the funding we’ve provided for new artists.”
L.I.P.S. began during Maori Television’s launch in March 2004 and has become the channel’s flagship show for rangatahi or youth. Each week, Te Awanui (or Awa as he’s known) presents the nation’s top ten Maori and Pacific Island songs and videos. Along the way he’s also met some of the rising stars in Aotearoa Nesian music.

Awa says he’s been proud to front the show because of his belief in promoting Maori and Pacific Island music. It’s also the first TV show that he’s fronted and his reo Maori has improved significantly.

”I’m pleased that my reo has improved and I’ve also learned how to memorise scripts,” says Awa. “I really enjoy what I do and I’m really fortunate to be in this position.”

The New Year’s episode of L.I.P.S was pre-recorded at Auckland’s Safari Lounge in Ponsonby, Auckland. Awa says he’ll be performing in Rotorua on New Year’s Eve with Nesian Mystik before taking the boys to his home in Tauranga to celebrate 2005.
The programme is timed to complement daylight saving, the festive summer mood in Aotearoa and the celebratory countdown to 2005.

Join Te Awanui for the best in Maori and Pacific Island music on Maori Television - New Year’s Eve, Friday December 1 at 6.00 PM.

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PUBLICITY RELEASE FOR RELEASE WEEK MON DECEMBER 27 TO SUN JANUARY 2

RUGBY LEAGUE HOPEFUL DREAMS SHATTERED ON NGATI NRL

It’s a week of hope and disaster for Australian National Rugby League (NRL) hopeful Richard Parker as his promising future is thrown into doubt in another gripping episode of NGATI NRL (Maori Television, Thursday December 30 at 8.00 PM).

NGATI NRL is a reality series set in Sydney, Australia, that follows the fortunes of 15 Maori rugby league players in the NRL, and those fighting to make their way into the teams.

For former Papakura resident Richard Parker, this episode brings the best and worst news in untimely fashion. First spotted by manager Wi Wharekura in Auckland, Richard underwent a stringent health and fitness regime to shed 15kg in one month to prove his worth in the NRL. Now a player for the West Tigers feeder team – West Magpies – Richard receives promising news.

Wi explains : “This week, he’s landed some good news that he is going to be part of next year’s full-time squad with the NRL. West Tigers have already sent me a contract for him for next year and they’re going to give him a test run towards the end of this season. The achievement that boy has made in one and a half years has been nothing short of sensational. He’s probably the epitome of what’s required and I try to encourage the other boys to mould themselves around Ritchie from a commitment and focus point of view, because there’s nothing in this world that can defocus this boy from achieving that goal.”

Nothing – except perhaps an unintentional high tackle. As Richard takes to the field in a club match, a misguided shoulder tackle catches the opposing player square in the jaw, throwing Richard’s shot with the West Tigers into doubt as he faces a possible three week stand down from the game.

“Three weeks eh? That’s my chance gone down the drain. I’m meant to have a crack at the West Tigers, but after what just happened, I’m not sure whether I’ll get a game. That really hurts,” he says.

Meanwhile, life in the big smoke continues for other NGATI NRL players. Former Bay of Islands resident Anthony Kiro juggles a double life as a second row / centre player for West Magpies and the more sedate life as an accountant in an expanding Sydney accountancy. And, former Awakino resident Steve Matthews gets a second chance at NRL stardom, but struggles to overcome the challenges he faces during the game.

The risky and exciting world of the Australian NRL continues to be revealed on NGATI NRL, Thursdays at 8.00 PM on Maori Television.

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PUBLICITY RELEASE FOR RELEASE WEEK MON DECEMBER 27 TO SUN JANUARY 2

THERE ONCE WAS A DAIRY OWNER, A RADIO DJ AND A DRUG AND ALCOHOL REHABILITATION WORKER…..

What do a dairy owner, a radio DJ and a drug and alcohol rehabilitation worker have in common? Find out on the upcoming episode of Maori Television’s gardening and lifestyle series MARAMATAKA – ONCE WERE GARDENERS screening this Sunday January 02 at 6.30 PM.

MARAMATAKA – ONCE WERE GARDENERS is a series hosted by veteran actor Pete Smith that takes a holistic look at the gifts of the land provided through the guidance of Maramataka (the ancient Maori calendar) and its influence on the lives of special New Zealanders.

This Sunday, Pete pays a visit to three Northland-based followers of Maramataka who have incorporated this ancient Maori lore into their work and personal lives.

Matekino Pihema (Ngapuhi) is a kuia who was raised by her grandmother and gifted with the knowledge of rongoa, or traditional Maori medicine, during her upbringing in the isolated community of Mangamuka. The owner and operator of the only dairy in this small township, she has now come full circle and is raising her own mokopuna in accordance with Maramataka lore. Matekino talks of working on her whanau lands as a youngster, gardening by the moon and doing the chores required in dairy farming while offers a valuable insight into the years when life was completely dependent on the land.

Liz Pengelly (Ngapuhi) is a DJ at the Mangamuka radio station, Tautoko FM. However, she trades her headphones for traditional rongoa as she is first and foremost a naturalist healer. Unsatisfied with mainstream medical services, Liz learned traditional treatments from a kuia at her daughter’s kohanga reo and now incorporates the herbal remedies of other indigenous cultures into her practice, having undergone formal training in the area of Natural Health. Her fundamental belief is that there are many simple rongoa that people should have access to without having to pay, and her dual services are by all accounts valuable within the community.

And, this episode will also introduce Tohe Ahipi (Ngati Hine) who oversees the operations at Te Hurihanga – a drug and rehabilitation house for young men, administered by the Ngati Hine Health Board. Te Hurihanga is not your typical clinic, as rehabilitation is provided through teaching gardening by Maramataka. Tohe is a strong proponent of gardening by Maramataka, having learned it from his parents and grandparents.

Don’t miss another fascinating episode of MARAMATAKA – ONCE WERE GARDENERS screening on Maori Television, Sunday January 2 at 6.30 PM.

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PUBLICITY RELEASE FOR RELEASE WEEK MON DECEMBER 27 TO SUN JANUARY 2

TE PUHI KAI ARIKI

TE PUHI KAI ARIKI is a salute to the Maori Women’s Welfare League. Established in 1951 under a National government, the organisation was instrumental in developing health, education, social welfare and political reforms for Maori. (Maori Television, Thursday December 30 at 8.30 PM).

In its first six years, Dame Whina Cooper, the inaugural president of the Maori Women’s Welfare League (MWWL), helped guide the organisation through the post-war era, the urban migration of Maori and the impacts of land and cultural alienation.

The MWWL encouraged Maori women to see themselves as self determining individuals who had the right to choose for themselves and their families in their ever changing world.

They also challenged central and local government policies regarding Maori and emerged as a powerful voice.

During the 1960s and 70s, Maori crime and education were priority issues and the women advocated strongly for te reo Maori and improvements in Maori education. Maori had become a refugee population in the cities, leading to isolation, loss of cultural links and gangs.

Maori agitation over further land loss resulted in the 1975 Maori land march initiated by Dame Whina Cooper and Te Roopu Matakite.

Between the 1980s and 1990s, the MWWL continued their work in parenting and health education, promoting increased electoral enrolment and business enterprise and lobbying against racism. When the kohanga reo movement began in the 1980s, it was the MWWL who helped set up and stabilise the language nests nationwide.

Produced by Rosina Hauiti of Pacific Rose Productions, TE PUHI KAI ARIKI is a poignant reminder of the MWWL’s achievements despite the negative impacts of colonisation. The archival footage is often nostalgic and sometimes depressing, but the faith and hope of these wahine toa is evident throughout.

TE PUHI KAI ARIKI features interviews with Dame Te Arikinui Te Atairangi Kaahu, Helen Clark and Dr Ranginui Walker plus archival interviews with Anne Delamere, Winston Peters, Sid Jackson, Ripeka Evans and Sir Robert Muldoon.

It also features past MWWL presidents - Areta Koopu, Dame Georgina Kirby, Dr Erihapeti Murchie-Rehu, Jacqui Te Kani, Aroha Reriti Crofts and Kitty Bennett.

Don’t miss the screening of TE PUHI KAI ARIKI on Maori Television, Thursday December 30 at 8.30 PM.

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PUBLICITY RELEASE FOR RELEASE WEEK MON DECEMBER 27 TO SUN JANUARY 2
A WIND AT MY BACK CHRISTMAS

Wartime tension, the depression, racism and family values form the core of Maori Television’s New Year’s Day movie A WIND AT MY BACK CHRISTMAS (New Year’s Day, Saturday January 1 at 8.30 PM). Set in Bedford, Canada during the 1930s depression, A WIND AT MY BACK CHRISTMAS chronicles the lives of the Bailey and Sutton families as they struggle to survive.

When the stock market crashed in 1929, America, desperate to protect its own crumbling economy, shut Canadian goods out of the U.S. market. The Canadian economy tottered. On the prairies, the weather turned mean. A five-year drought brought the West to its knees. As crops failed, so too did the rest of Canada.

Set against this backdrop, A WIND AT MY BACK CHRISTMAS is sometimes tragic and often funny. Alongside the Baileys and Suttons are a cast of domineering relatives and the everyday heroes and heroines of the Depression. In A WIND AT MY BACK CHRISTMAS, Grace Bailey and her mother have gone to Europe to recover her husband's belongings. When World War II breaks out, they become stranded in Europe and may not return home in time for the holidays.
At home, sister-in-law Toppy is in a tizzy because she is directing the town pageant, but the script is a flop. Meanwhile nephew Hub, who is planning on becoming a priest, returns from the school holidays with a Jewish girlfriend named Anna Schiller.
Things become complicated when a detective shows up in town looking for Anna who is an illegal refugee. The small town is not immune to the looming prejudices in Europe, and Hub is worried his family will betray Anna. In the end, the Baileys and Suttons recognise that nothing is more important than family.

An instant family holiday classic, A WIND AT MY BACK CHRISTMAS is moving, thought provoking and warm-hearted.
Sit back and unwind from the New Year’s festivities with this universal story of whanau and aroha on New Year’s Day, Saturday January 1 at 8.00 PM on Maori Television.

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PUBLICITY RELEASE FOR RELEASE WEEK MON DECEMBER 27 TO SUN JANUARY 2
SUNDAY MOVIE: BELONGING

It’s April 1975 and the Khmer Rouge are marching on Phnom Penh. Just three days before the city falls, a small orphaned girl, Li-Da Men, is flown out of the country. Adopted by a British couple, she lives a comfortable, privileged life while the murderous Khmer Rouge kills two million innocent Cambodians and destroys the country.

Fast forward to 1996 and Li-Da’s return to Cambodia. Her search for the truth about her past, the country’s past and what is going on there today makes compelling viewing on BELONGING (Maori Television Sunday January 2 at 9.00 PM).

Within a week of Li-Da’s arrival in Cambodia, two families came forward and claimed they were related. In the following weeks more people appeared, often travelling long distances at their own expense. None were searching for a rich Western relative – just personal peace - having lost children during Cambodia’s bloody war and its aftermath.

Li-Da formed very strong bonds with some of these people, and in a miraculous turn of events, she learned the truth about what happened to her natural parents.

By the end of BELONGING Li-Da Kruger returned to Britain a transformed person – in love with a Cambodian and committed to returning to Cambodia.

BELONGING is a film with a gripping personal narrative, tears and triumph, and humour as well as disappointment.

Li-Da’s story screens on BELONGING on Maori Television, Sunday January 2 at 9.00 PM.
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PUBLICITY RELEASE FOR RELEASE WEEK MON DECEMBER 27 TO SUN JANUARY 2
C.D. HOY: PORTRAITS FROM THE FRONTIER

The Canadian wilderness at the turn of the last century was an unforgiving place for the gold miners, ranchers and early pioneers who settled there. It was also a place rich with interesting subjects for Chinese photographer C.D. HOY (Maori Television Tuesday December 28 at 8.30 PM).

Born in China’s Guangdong Province in 1883, Chow Dong Hoy had a rare insight into frontier life as shown on the images he captured. He moved from China to rural British Columbia in 1902 and worked as a houseboy, cook, surveyor and miner before establishing himself as a photographer.

Between 1909 and 1920, Hoy took more than 1,500 photographs creating an invaluable record of the Cariboo region’s cultural diversity. He also captured the enduring presence of the interior's native peoples, as well as the dignity and pride of Chinese workers and Caucasian labourers. At a time when other enthnographic and commercial photographers were actively creating the myth of the “Noble Savage” and the “Exotic Oriental”, C.D. Hoy was capturing the ordinary lives of his subjects.

Although Hoy had come from a desperately poor background in China, he was able to make a good life for himself, his wife and their twelve children. Using his early earnings to learn English, he seized opportunities as they came, and was to become a successful entrepreneur. He was also one of a handful of early photographers who recorded people of all ethnic backgrounds in the rough-and-tumble British Columbia interior. C.D. HOY draws on Hoy’s memoirs and commentary of present day historians and artists. It also sheds light on a community that endured many hardships and the struggle by many Chinese and aboriginal pioneers to survive.

C.D. HOY screens on Maori Television on Tuesday December 28 at 8.30 PM.
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PUBLICITY RELEASE FOR RELEASE WEEK MON DECEMBER 27 TO SUN JANUARY 2

THE EARTHY BEATS OF AFRICA COME TO MAORI TELEVISION

Maori Television is going primal this week with special screenings of FESTIVE SOUNDS OF AFRICA (Wednesday December 29 at 10.00 PM) and RHYTHMS OF AFRICA (New Years Eve, Friday December 31 at 9.00 PM).

FESTIVE SOUNDS OF AFRICA lives up to its apt title as one-off special showcasing the unique music styles and rhythms of Africa. Beginning with the different sounds of nature, the special then sweeps into a celebration of the music of Africa, the Wild Continent. Despite being plagued by unstable political environments, diseases, poverty and hunger, there is resilience, joy and freedom amongst the people that is almost indescribable to the Western mindset. This is evident in the music on the programme as world-renowned artists Vusi Mahlasela and Pops Mohammed perform using the traditional Kora instrument, voice and guitar in celebration of 10 years of South African democracy and the Christmas season.

Meanwhile, RHYTHMS OF AFRICA is an extraordinary feat, combining a full symphony orchestra, cultural performers and the traditional music of 11 South African cultures in one superb hit. This international-award winning programme features artists such as Abdulah Ibrahim, award-winning gospel singer Rebecca Malope and acclaimed artist Sibongile Khumalo.

Get shaking and stomping with FESTIVE SOUNDS OF AFRICA (Wednesday December 29 at 10.00 PM) and RHYTHMS OF AFRICA (New Years Eve, Friday December 31 at 9.00 PM), only on Maori Television.

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