OBITUARY: By Matthew Theunissen of RNZ News

Acclaimed actor and activist Anzac Wallace is being remembered by people in the film and political worlds for his rare talent and powerful personality.

The actor has died at the age of 76. His tangi will be at Ngā Whare Waatea Marae in Māngere.

Wallace, usually called “Zac”, was best known for his role in the 1983 film Utu (Revenge), which brought him critical acclaim and helped put New Zealand – and Māori – on the map.

READ MORE: Māori Television tribute to Anzac Wallace

Anzac Wallace as the guerilla leader Te Wheke in the 1983 film Utu … brought him critical acclaim and helped put New Zealand – and Māori – on the global map. Image: Ara Video/RNZ

The thrilling tale of conflict between Māori and British colonists in 1870s New Zealand is led by Wallace’s character Te Wheke, who sets out to take vengeance on the British forces who have killed his family and destroyed his village.

Wallace had done little acting before taking on the role. He was working as a trade union organiser during the 1978 Māngere Bridge construction project dispute when he met Utu director Geoff Murphy.

That’s when Labour MP Willie Jackson also got to know him.

“Zac Wallace was a leader. There’s no doubt about it,” Jackson said.

‘Huge personality’
“In every area that he moved into, you know, he was born a leader and he just had this big, huge personality and he was a natural orator and he was a fighter for justice.”

Wallace ran into trouble when he was a young man and spent more than a decade in borstal and prison – the most serious a six-year sentence for armed robbery – but turned his life around after his release.

“He went from being in the D in Paremoremo [prison] to become a union leader and a really acclaimed actor and community leader,” Jackson said.

“So it’s such a successful life. He had so many skills and of course he had his flaws, too … but always his leadership stood out and he had a great heart for the people.”

When Utu was released, Jackson said it was an incredible source of pride for Māori, as well as for the rest of the country.

“We had so few Māori who had made it, in terms of international acclaim. You know, the Temuera Morrisons, the Cliff Curtises, the Taika Waititis, Kimberley, they came along quite a bit later. And so Zac was one of the first – if not the first – to really get some international acclaim.”

Actor-turned-lawyer Kelly Johnson, best known for playing car thief Gerry Austin in Goodbye Pork Pye, got to know Wallace on the set of Utu.

“We were in the bush, it was cold and with snow sometimes. So you end up sitting around, trying to keep warm and talking. And that’s how I got to know him.

‘Talk quite openly’
“It was a really fascinating, interesting time because we were discussing things that we don’t normally talk about. And we could confront them and talk about quite openly, about what happened in the past.

“And at the same time, there was all this stuff going on with the Red Squad and you know, the Springbok Tour. There was a sort of a weird parallel going on in real life.”

Anzac Wallace … “weird parallel going on in real life.”. Image: Māori TV

Anzac Wallace spoke to RNZ after Geoff Murphy’s death in December last year.

“At that time I didn’t trust maybe people and this bearded man rocked up on my doorstep with a cigarette – a durrie – hanging out of his mouth and asking me if I wanted to play in a movie.

“I always took those sorts of invitations like a joke. Who wants to know a thief? Who wants to know a burglar? Who wants to know an ex-prisoner?

“Geoff did. He was genuine.”

This article is republished under the Pacific Media Centre’s content partnership with Radio New Zealand.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The Moana trailer … “magical but also our reality.”

By Vaimoana Tapaleao of The New Zealand Herald

You know the film is something special when the opening scene brings a tear to the eye.

It is the call of song from an ancestor: the voice of a woman singing the language of our forefathers. Her chant and her words are the welcoming scene for Disney’s movie of the moment: Moana.

She’s been a long time coming, but Disney’s first Pacific princess has finally arrived.

This one is different, though. There are no ballgowns or diamond tiaras. Her hair is not straight, it’s wavy and the kind our mothers had to try to tame with the Pasifika version of gel: coconut oil.

This princess has a pig for a pet and, my gosh, her legs actually have calves.

Walking into the movie theatre to see this film was a weird experience.

As a Samoan woman, there was a sense of expectation for this film from the day Disney announced it was happening. There was also something close to dread: “Will they get it right?”

Te Vaka drums and vocals
As New Zealand Pacific band Te Vaka opened with a series of harmonies, drums and vocals unique to our part of the world, I began to breathe again.

“Home,” I thought.

A lot of controversy surrounded Moana, even before the girl who would lend her voice to her was cast.

People questioned the right a big-time international franchise had to create it.

When images of Maui, voiced by Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, were released, people slammed the depiction of the revered demi-god who looked like an obese ogre.

Maui fished up the islands, and then deep-fried them, the memes said.

Disney was accused of cultural appropriation when it released a kids’ costume, a brown jump-suit with tattoos, just before Halloween. Disney answered the only way that would calm the waters, with an apology and removing the costume from shelves.

The thing is, however, this is the first time in Disney history that the people on screen actually look like us.

Mirror image of our backyard
In an earlier review of the film, an overseas-based writer said it was somewhat unrealistic because the scenery appeared magical.

The writer most probably has never stepped foot in the Pacific, because the Polynesia depicted in the film is an animated yet mirror image of our backyard.

The glittering see-through ocean looks like the one the village kids splash in behind my mum’s family fale in Savai’i.

Tamatoa, Sina, Tui, Fiti and hell, even the chicken Hei Hei (Ho!) – are all names that belong to family and church members, or words I grew up hearing.

The siapo (tapa cloth) hanging in the fale are the same as ones at home and the pe’a tattoo worn by Moana’s father, Tui, is the same as one seen on old photos of my great-grandfather.

The way the lava meets the sea, the way the blow holes spit out jets of water near the beach and even the lushness of the plants, frangipani trees and teuila, or red ginger, yeah, it is magical, but it is also our reality.

As a kid, a lot of people would ask about the origins of my name.

“Where is it from?” The answer has always been: Samoa – but it’s also Tongan, Māori, Hawai’ian, Tahitian … actually, it’s from the whole of the Pacific.

In the same way, Moana belongs to us. She is not just another Disney princess. She is a daughter of the South Pacific, and for that, I am proud.

Vaimoana Tapaleao is The New Zealand Herald’s Pacific Affairs and People reporter. An award-winning journalist, she is also a graduate of Auckland University of Technology and won the Pacific Media Centre’s Storyboard Award for diversity reporting in 2007.