Image: Producer Lisa Chatfield, Teena Henderson and Eleanor Catton on set for The Luminaries. Eleanor is holding the piece of pounamu which Teena gifted to the production.
Teena Henderson, lecturer in Aotahi: School of Māori and Indigenous Studies, was Ngāti Waewae Te Reo consultant for the currently screening BBC adaptation of The Luminaries and played a key role on the set on the first day of filming.
Teena came to be involved in the production because her hapū, Ngāti Waewae, hold mana whenua over one of the main locations in the story. The Luminaries features 1860s Hokitika and includes a Māori character, Te Rau Tauwhare. Well before filming began the production company approached Ngāti Waewae as they were keen to engage with the hapū. In particular they wanted a waiata tangi composed for Te Rau Tauwhare to chant to lament the death of his friend Crosbie Wells. The rūnanga delegated the task to Teena, and although she hadn’t composed a waiata tangi before she drew on her experience composing other songs and her studying of mōteatea under Professor Margaret Orbell at UC in the 1980s.
After composing and recording the waiata tangi Teena was invited to be on set near Auckland for the first day of shooting in November 2018. She was given the honour of launching the filming with a mihi and karakia. Teena presented the production crew with a piece of pounamu from the Arahura River to be a mauri for the duration of the shooting.
“It was a thrill to meet the actors involved in the production, as well as Eleanor who was delighted with how much the sets aligned with her own visulation of the story.”
Teena spent time on set working with Richard Te Are, the actor who played the role of Te Rau Tauwhare, helping him to perfect his pronunciation and delivery of the waiata. She was also shown around many of the sets and noted the care taken with the costumes to ensure historical accuracy.
Although Teena’s input was just one small aspect of the production she was impressed with the attention taken with getting things right and she found it exciting to watch the series and look out for how they had incorporated sections of her waiata into various scenes.
The BBC adaptation of The Luminariesis based upon the book by Eleanor Catton, which won the 2013 Man Booker Prize. Catton, an alumni of the University of Canterbury, worked on the Luminaries in 2011 during her time as the UC Ursula Bethell Writer in Residence.
