The Haka Party Incident

This impressively candid documentary revisits the three-minute long “incident” at the University of Auckland which triggered race relations between Māori and non-Māori in 1970s New Zealand. Current Interviews with the engineering students who participated in the mocking haka party and members of the activist group that disrupted it, now adults, reflect on their versions of what happened. Directed by Katie Wolfe (one of the directors of 2017’s Waru) this doc, originally a theatre piece, is the ultimate telling of this true story. With archival footage and insights from those who were there, The Haka Party Incident brings forgotten history to life. Katie Wolfe (Ngāti Mutunga, Ngāti Tama, Ngāti Toa Rangatira) writer/director. Her previous short film, Redemption, won Best Short Drama and the Emerging Talent Award at imagineNATIVE in 2011. She was a director of the portmanteau film Waru, which opened the Festival in 2017. The Haka Party Incident is her first feature-length documentary. Available in-person only.