Ngati
Synopsis
In a remote seaside village, a stranger becomes involved in public and personal crises.
NGATI is set in 1948 in Kapua, an imaginary small seaside town, the spiritual home of the local Ngati, or tribe.
A young Australian, recently qualified as a doctor, arrives on holiday to bisit a non-Maori family. The father is the one local doctor and his daughter is the local school-teacher. Her relationship with the visiting Australian is at first stormy. She reacts angrily to his arrogant manner and his disparaging remarks about the Maoris, who he compares to the Australian "Abos", both in highly uncomplimentary terms.
However, she notices as she takes him around, to the pub or to visit sheep shearers, that the visitor is unquestioningly accepted by the Maoris. In the apparent peace of this small town, there is an under-current of change that is about to take place.
The daughter of a leading member of the community has returned from the city, as her young brother is critically ill, but she finds it hard to accept the old-fashioned ways and customs.
The local meat processing plant is about to be closed down by the financiers from the capital. It is a moment when the far-thinking Maori people have to decide to take their lives into their own hands.
The young doctor witnesses all these events, and when he discovers why his father had insisted so strongly he spend a holiday in this small town, he decides he will make it his new home.
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