So, instead of diversification of the screen, the thing that I really want to see and what I strive for and hope for, is the term coined by my mentor Merata Mita, who was the first indigenous and first female filmmaker to come out of New Zealand. And, she was an activist and she paved the way. She blazed the trail that I’m blaze-trailing. She was the one who started it all and the term she loved to use was ‘decolonizing the screen.’
What’s confusing is when we feel like we need to see (our face on screen). Look, it’s great to see your own face on screen, but don’t, please not on my account, don’t put a Polynesian in your thing just cause you feel you need to. It has to make sense. I don’t want to see one token Polynesian character in your show, ok? That’s just, weird. Unless it makes sense (for the time, setting, and plot).
What I wanna see is a fully Polynesian controlled, Polynesian story that’s written by, and show-run by, show-run by! When we make our things, don’t give us a white show-runner to tell us the rules and tell us how to do things. Let us figure it out, and let us figure out the structure of the story in our own way from our own experience. By decolonizing the screen, what I mean is, just don’t make it so white (all the time!)….you can have a white show, great, but have other shows as well, not just (white) ones!
-Taika Waititi, The Hollywood Reporter, Raising our Voices Luncheon, 2023
