COUSINS

 

COUSINS

Directed by Ainsley Gardiner and Briar Grace Smith this film is very strong , powerful and deeply moving.It was produced by an all-female, Māori team and features nine Māori actresses playing three cousins across three stages of their lives. The cast is tremendous and there is some exquisite , beautiful photography by Ray Edwards - there is an impressive , sparse use of closeup and at times luxurious concentration on texture ( eg the Maori woven cloth , the swirling water , braided hair ) as well as some spectacular landscapes . Atmosphere is created with the use of insect noises and birdsong especially in the forest scenes and there is a crushing sense of being almost overwhelmed at times in the noisy, packed city scenes. The film is adapted from the 1992 novel Cousins by Patrica Smith, the mother of director Briar Grace-Smith. 

There are parallels with our treatment of First Peoples – the film eloquently tells a poignant tale of colonial cruelty-  the enforced loss of Maori language and culture and the separation of families .There is an underlying political message with everything from the attitudes to Black hair to Indigenous land rights .It is impassioned and we see the cousin’s suffering.The film jumps back an forward in time , shifting between the current contemporary and when the three were much younger , and we follow their lives. Each of the cousins are distinctly defined and we get to know the various people around them too. We see how a splintered sense of self is a common struggle for Māori who were forcibly closed-stranger adopted as babies into pakeha families between 1955-1985 . It is rather similar to the story of our Stolen Generation in Australia.

We are first introduced to the three girls as they play on ancestral land. Mata , Makareta and Missy are cousins, who are forcibly separated by the state and we follow their lives .Shy , rather awkward and innocent orphaned Mata , played by Te Raukura Gray, Ana Scotney and Tanea Heke who has lost her mother and is abandoned by her Pākehā father,  becomes a ward of the state ,is lied to and  cut off from her community and family .The matron Mrs Parkinson renames her and becomes her legal guardian , unfortunately with erroneous and racist ideas as to what is correct for Mata.  In effect she becomes almost a servant, disconcerted and uneasy.By the request of her tūpuna (grandparents), Mata stays a summer at her ancestral home where she blossoms after Missy scolds her . But she is forced to return to the dreaded orphanage where Mrs Parkinson cuts off all future contact with her whānau, as if they don’t exist . At work she is laughed at and bullied. We see how the older Mata has become homeless .She tries to distance herself from the usual human emotions , reciting a nursery rhyme and counting  , taking her shoes off and crossing on the red traffic light when attempting to cross the street . Her individual tuakiri (identity) is shattered and we see the significance of whānau and whenua to Maori .( just like the relationship with the land here in Australia with our First Peoples ) .  

Meanwhile on their ancestral land, we see how educated Makareta , (played by Mihi Te Rauhi Daniels, Tioreore Melbourne and Briar Grace-Smith)  highly accomplished , deals with traditional Maori cultural practice by absconding from an arranged marriage to study law and start looking for her vanished cousin, and we see how conscientious but audacious Missy played by Hariata Moriarty, Keyahne Patrick Williams and Rachel House replaces her , ultimately become kaitiaki (guardian) of the land .

Time passes and surveyors for large companies emerge, making the promise to find their lost cousin seem almost impossible – until an unexpected meeting and discovery .

The scary part is that it is still happening – in 2020, the New Zealand's Children's Commissioner Andrew Becroft admitted to Newshub : "From 2014 to 2017, the removal of Māori babies ordered into state custody before birth almost doubled." Dr Haegna-Collins warned people to not view the issues of Māori family separation as a thing of the past. "Māori children are still being removed from Maori families at an alarming rate.

A glorious, thought provoking film

Released in Australia at various cinemas from June 10

https://www.flicks.com.au/movie/cousins-2021/?trailer=/trailer/cousins-2021/23555/

https://www.dendy.com.au