"We've reached the Me Too moment for race" - Michelle Law (Screenwriter, Actor).
Māori, Pasifika and POC television and film practitioners in Aotearoa, the time has come to make a stand. The industry is systemically racist & it needs to stop.

It's unacceptable that Pākehā producers receive millions of taxpayer $$ to tell Māori & Pasifika stories. Meanwhile, brown filmmakers beg for crumbs, are gaslit & told they aren't experienced enough to get funded mainstream budgets. Some of these practitioners have 20+ yrs exp!

If we continue to stay silent out of fear of being blacklisted, that tells me we only care about ourselves and our own careers. That is not being 'about the people' the way some of us like to claim we are What industry do we want the next generation of filmmakers to inherit?

Our pākeke went to the barricades to fight for us 30 years ago! Merata & Barry sacraficed so much for us to be where we are today. It's a disrespect to their legacies that this industry is still in the same disgraceful state decades after! Why are we still here?

We can't hope that the funders and network execs magically have a change of heart and the systemic racism that plagues our industry will suddenly disappear. There is a key ingredient to making movements happen and that is the POWER OF THE PEOPLE.