Tumanako/Hope

Life in New Zealand’s Hokianga is documented across the generations. Decades of inhabitants are portrayed in the documentary: local iwi, long-established farming families, and the alternative lifestylers of the ‘60s and ‘70s who put down roots and stayed.

"Interviewing numerous current inhabitants, Pointon draws us down many of the roads that led to a beautiful, unspoiled harbour on the West Coast of the Far North. For many of the region’s tangata whenua, there was a road away from the Hokianga before there was a road back home: there was certainly a darker time before Pākehā settlers valued Taha Māori as we see happening now. For others, New Zealand itself represented an escape from Vietnam-era America.

"The film is rich with tales of estrangement from backgrounds in postwar London, Germany, Manchester, Fiji and Queensland; from being ‘brought up British in Hawke’s Bay’; and the consequent search for social and political alternatives. Pointon’s subjects are relaxed, candid and often funny." (New Zealand International Film Festival)

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