After the death of Whale Rider producer John Barnett, Shayne Currie takes a diversion on the Great NZ Road Trip to a community that still harbours warm feelings about the movie that brought fame. But was there also an opportunity lost?
A rather ominous sign at the entrance of Whāngārā belies a warmth and spirit in a village made famous by one of our greatest movies.
“Stop – no access,” it reads. “Private road, private beach, private land.” It warns trespassers will be prosecuted and bans camping and motorhomes. “This is a marae – not a public accessway.”
The sign is there for the people who still turn up expecting they can stomp everywhere across the natural setting of one of our most famous movies, Whale Rider.
On a late-winter Tuesday afternoon, Whāngārā is quiet. There are no locals, let alone tourists. The kids are all at school up the road; three roosters roam the single road. A couple of dogs sit in doorways.
Lying in long vegetation on one property are a couple of small fibreglass whales – props from the movie, which was shot here almost 25 years ago.
The marae itself bears the famous carving of Paikea riding a whale, with the legendary Māori ancestor of Ngāti Porou said to have arrived at Whāngārā from Hawaiki on whaleback after his jealous half-brother tried to drown him.
The legend inspired Witi Ihimaera’s book, which in turn inspired the film that starred Keisha Castle-Hughes and was directed by Niki Caro. Castle-Hughes was nominated for an Oscar for her role.
The film was produced by John Barnett, who died three days ago. He always spoke warmly of Whāngārā, as the natural and obvious setting for Whale Rider – it would have been almost “heresy” to film anywhere else, he once said, given that’s where Ihimaera based the book.
I leave the car parked at the warning sign and wander down the road, twice, before finding anyone. I’m advised to go and see “Aunty Ding” a few doors down.
Aunty Ding is Te Maringiwai Whanarere, who, along with her son Te Rama, hosts me for an hour, relating stories about their beloved village – and their warmth towards the movie that made it famous.
“The best time was when Whale Rider was being made,” says Te Maringiwai, 74, two minutes into our conversation.
They moved out of their house and up the road so the film crew could use it as an office. If any of the actors were tired, “and they just wanted to get away from everything, they’d come over here and have a sleep”.
“For years, the message on our answering machine was ‘This is the mailbox of the Whale Rider’,” laughs Te Rama, 40.
He and his mother described an “awesome” several months of filming in 2001.
Te Rama doubled as a security guard, looking after movie props and other property, and he also had a cameo role at the end of the film, paddling the waka. “I had real fluffy hair back then. I’m sitting right in front of Keisha and her papa.”
He says: “It brought a lot of fun times with all of the [film] people who came. A lot of pride.”
Then, when the movie was released, it also brought a lot of visitors.
“Man, it was overwhelming in the first two or three years,” says Te Rama, recalling carloads of people coming down the hill into the village. Many were international tourists from the likes of China, Japan and India.
Te Maringiwai says a lot of whānau did not like the influx of tourists.
“I suppose if it had been organised properly... but you could see people coming down the road. They’d come off the beach and walk through the property. You’d say, ‘excuse me, this is private property’; ‘oh sorry, we didn’t know that’.
“They were everywhere – they’d just walk down that way or just go straight down to the marae. If they came and asked me, I didn’t mind – I’d just tell them, ‘Just tell them Aunty Ding sent you’.”
Te Rama believes the village could have better harnessed the opportunity.
He remembers busloads of visitors coming from as far away as Rotorua in vehicles marked up as “The Whale Rider Tour”.
The village was also caught somewhat off guard by the movie’s huge success. “We didn’t foresee it to be such a popular place.”
Te Rama remembers that its relatively low production budget was being compared with one of the blockbuster Lord of the Rings films that was being shot at the same time. “Whale Rider went viral, for such a simple film.”
He also acknowledges and respects the elders’ privacy principles.
“We’ve always been quite quiet here. You could go down to the beach and there’s no one, and that’s because of our forefathers and their forefathers putting those restrictions on people.”
Visitor numbers have now eased. Those who do want to visit will undoubtedly receive a warm welcome, provided they ask first to look at the likes of the marae. For a long time, Te Maringiwai served cups of tea to visitors to the marae.
But driving on up, talking to no one and taking photos without permission is a no-no.
“If you’re bringing tourists out here, they’ve got to know that there’s no way you can just freely come here, you know, because this is our backyard,” says Te Rama.
“We’re actually inviting you in here to come and have a look. I think a lot of them would take that for granted if we just willy-nilly brought tourists out here.
“This is our backyard. This is our home. You’ve got to have permission when you go to someone else’s house. That’s just the basic 101 rule.”
Te Rama Whanarere says the village population is now getting older, with just a handful of kids.
According to the 2023 Census, 159 people live in Whāngārā – both in the beachfront settlement and in nearby rural areas.
It is home to the Ngāti Porou hapū Ngāti Konohi. Many elders appeared in the movie, although Te Rama and Te Maringiwai say most of them have since passed away.
Te Rama has lived in the village all his life; his mother essentially for almost all of hers.
Whāngārā is a strong farming community. For many years, Te Rama’s father was the shearing contractor for all of the major farms in the area; his mother was the cook and also “the backbone of the marae in the kitchen”.
“My life growing up here was simple as, man – safe as.”
He says everyone looks out for and supports each other. “Being around your family, everyone is related, everyone knows everyone’s business.
“It’s that sort of village, community, rural living. It’s the best, eh.
“The manaakitanga, the aroha when things are a bit hard for people, you can always count on your aunty or your cousin to go and talk to - you have your own therapy, you have your own psychologist and everything around here,” he laughs.
Whale Rider producer John Barnett adored Whāngārā and it paid him and the film-makers back in spades.
Until only a few weeks ago, Whale Rider was the fifth highest-grossing New Zealand movie of all time with $6.496 million at the local box office – Tinā has just surpassed it into fifth position.
“This [Witi Ihimaera] novel was set in Whāngārā, and it would almost have been heresy to shoot anywhere else,” Barnett once said.
“There are very physical things that are described in the book – the sweep of the bay, the island that looks like a whale, the meeting houses, the number of houses that are present and of course, the people whose legend we were telling.
“The very first time we went there, about nine or 10 years ago, it was obvious that this was the place to make the film. If we’d gone somewhere else and tried to manufacture the surroundings and the ambience, then I think it would have been noticeable in the picture.
“I think in fact, what we’ve captured is the absolute spirit of the place.”
As I leave Whāngārā, a resident stops in her car, inquiring about my intentions. She’s suspicious. I explain what I’m doing and that I’ve just visited and interviewed “Aunty Ding”.
“Ka pai!” she says, driving off.
Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand’s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor.