Camera still rolling for Princess Miro

By JILL NICHOLAS in Rotorua
Former film star Witarina Te Miriarangi Parewahaika Harris is not one to bask in the glamour of her glory days.

Since then, the years have piled up and she is the first to admit her century-old memory bank has become a trifle rusty.

There are some gaps in her recollections of various phases of her life.

But she still sings like a tui - especially if it's a popular Maori number, her spelling ability's on a par with the dictionary and she speaks with the wisdom of a philosopher.

Witarina anticipates there'll be a lot of singing to be done on Monday, 100 years to the day since her birth in an Ohinemutu whare.

It is a milestone to be marked with a celebration of Hollywood proportions, starting with a showing of The Devil's Pit, the 1928 movie in which the then Witarina Mitchell starred.

Her role was that of Princess Miro.

"I just loved the part. I got it because the director wanted someone who was a big name in Rotorua. I was a Mitchell and I could speak Maori."

Shot at the Whakarewarewa model pa and on White Island, the film, which has been nurtured as a national treasure by the New Zealand Film Archives, is to be given a gala screening at Te Arawa's premier meeting house Tamatekapua.

The leading lady of the day is scheduled to arrive by limo and walk the red carpet.

With her will be close whanau, including sister Frances Taylor, who, at 95, confirms that the genes of longevity are entrenched in this family's bloodline.

The gilded invitations to The Devil's Pit screening and the champagne breakfast to follow portray the life and times of Witarina Harris.

They are entitled The Camera's Still Rolling, with the sub-text Take 100.

About half the guest of honour's lifetime has been spent in Rotorua.

After completing all her schooling at the Ohinemutu Convent (where St Michael's Church now stands) the young Witarina's first job was as a stenographer with Rotorua legal firm Hampson and Davies.

There her shorthand and typing skills impressed frequent visitor Sir Apirana Ngata, who recruited her for his Parliamentary office.

The move to Wellington was a welcome one.

A couple of years earlier she'd fallen in love with Reg Harris, a handsome blond Pakeha.

They met while he was visiting from Wellington in his "spiffing" Model T Ford.

One memory Witarina retains is how her strict parents wouldn't let her out alone with Reg. Any trips in the Model T were taken with a car load of other girls from the "pa".

"Oh, we had such a lovely time. When I went to Wellington he got to be my boyfriend."

The couple married in 1932. Four sons followed and they adopted a niece, raising her as their daughter.

After Reg died in the 1970s she returned "home".

She agrees with youngest son Stuart that she has been very happy "back where she belongs".

"I found my cultural roots again. I have loved being able to go to hui and tangi. They were a rarity in Wellington.

"I have always felt the most important thing is love within your wider whanau."