Souls of Warriors: Once Were Warriors in France

Abstract

Once were Warriors (1994), billed as the first fully Maori feature-length fiction film, though a huge success with popular audiences throughout Aotearoa, came in for some harsh criticism from academics, Maori and Pakeha alike. At the forefront of Maori academic critiques of this film and others (Jane Campion’s The Piano, most notably) that represented Maori, Leone Pihama feared the consequences of projecting what were seen as debilitatingly negative, decontextualized stereotypes of Maori, not just onto our national screens, but beyond, onto the global stage. This paper seeks to (begin to) engage with such critiques by examining box office figures and press reception of Tamahori’s first feature in France.