“Indigenous People Will Save the World”: A Spotlight on Sundance Institute’s Merata Mita Fellowship – sundance.org

During the Native Forum Celebration during the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, Hakaraia reflected on the legacy of Mita and the bright future of Indigenous storytelling: 

“I am not much into writing speeches, but I was up late last night. Mostly because of the jet lag, but because Merata’s voice was in my head. It’s in my head nearly all the time. I wanted to hear her, some of the things that she would say. 

Back in the day when I started, I’ve done nothing else but work as a storyteller. From the time I was expelled from school to now. I did a Google search at three in the morning and I found an interview on Radio New Zealand that I did with Merata in 1996 — that’s 28 years ago — and in that interview she was talking about the 100 year celebration of New Zealand Cinema. In that interview she said there is nothing to celebrate. We are still held by the power brokers and those that stop us from doing what we naturally need to do. None of us come into this world as storytellers because we want to do this. — there is nothing else that we can do, we have to be storytellers. She talked about the gatekeepers and she talked about the festivals across the world not recognizing the work of Indigenous film storytellers. 

I reflect on those 28 years and wonder whether much has changed. I believe things have changed. But in this room, we have the dynamism and the power and the unflinching brave hearts of people that are prepared to go further and go beyond anybody else’s critique. There are partners and allies in this room and I ask all of you to get alongside these Indigenous storytellers because Indigenous storytelling is the truth of our humanity. My husband, Tainui,who’s a filmmaker, often says Indigenous People will save the world. We won’t get the credit for it, but we will save the world because in our knowledge are all of the truths.”

Today, fittingly on Indigenous People’s Day, the Sundance Indigenous program sends out the call across the globe for woman-identifying Indigenous storytellers to share their stories and apply to the 2025 Merata Mita Fellowship. 

Click here to apply. The application is open from October 14–28th, 2024.