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Photo: RNZ / Jeff McEwan
This year marks 20 years of Whakaata Māori - Māori Television. Something to celebrate particularly in this climate of broadcasting cuts and redundancies.
A founding member of Māori TV, veteran broadcaster and television executive Julian Wilcox, was there at the very beginning: presenting the very first broadcast in 2004.
He joins Culture 101 to play Fast Favourites. Host of RNZ’s Māpuna Wilcox is also completing a doctorate, focussing on the legendary Polynesian explorer Kupe. In many iwi, although not all, Kupe is considered the first Polynesian to discover Aotearoa New Zealand. As part of his research, Wilcox has been reading Ngā mahi ā ngā tūpuna by George Grey and The Great New Zealand Myth by D.R. Simmons.
Wilcox recommends HBO’s The Truth vs Alex Jones (available on Apple). Jones, a right-wing conspiracy theorist falsely claimed the US school shooting at Sandy Hook in which 26 people were killed, was staged by actors as part of the government’s plot to take away guns. Jones has had to pay $1.7 billion dollars in damages to numerous families.
Wilcox’s other recommendation is Kia Hiwa Ra by Dr Te Atakohu Middleton on Māori journalism in Aotearoa New Zealand. The book explores how news values in English-speaking countries are reinterpreted for a Māori worldview and how Māori perspectives are expressed. There’s also a teaching and learning element in looking at how tapu and noa are managed by news teams.
Julian Wilcox spoke to Culture 101’s Perlina Lau.