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6. Message and theme --> British Colonization

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6. Message and theme --> British Colonization

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This movie describes how it has been for a lot of the indigenous people post colonization. Most of the indigenous people in the many colonized contries lives in poverty and a lot of them have a hard time finding their place between two cultures. Because they are often looked down upon by the colonizers descendants because of their different heritage. This makes it hard for them to be proud of their heritage and this does in many cases lead to bad habits like drinking which we also see in the movie.

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The title is very important for the movie because it's about how each characters see their self and their Maori culture.
Beth sees the Maoris as warrios and she even says "once were warriors"  in the movie.
Jake on the other hand sees the Maoris as slaves and acts accordingly.

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A very important part of the movie is the first ~30 seconds of the movie really show the complex of problems of the movie; NZ used to be a great land with amazing landscapes and the Maori people used to rule. Now there are huge roads, buildings and the maori people have become socially oppressed and the white man now rules (all authority figures, except for the principal, are white).
This causes the family to look for their roots; Nig becomes a part of a maori-gang and is accepted after the brutal initiation rite. He then gets tattooed and becomes a modern maori (a gang; no hakas or other traditional maori traits)
Boogie also finds his calling; he is sent away to a boys' school, where he learns the maori traditions and how to carry his words. He here learns of the taiaha and the maori-spirit and also learns how to dance a haka.
And lastly, the mother returns to her maori-society when she has to bury Grace and then we can assume that that is where she is going with the kids when she leaves Jake.

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Grace is the eldest daughter of Jake and Beth. She is very clever and writes stories about her Maori heritage. She is very anti violent but lives in a family where her father is violent. Grace tries not get involved in the violence but when she is rape by her uncle she doesn't know how to deal with the violence and ends up comiting suicide.

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Jake is the father of five children. He drinks a lot and has a tendency to solve his problems with violence. He doesn't really change throughout the story but he has one day where he is very different (that day he is also sober).
Jake keeps his distance to his Maori heritage. He isn't proud of it because he thinks of the Maoris as slaves of the white people and his way of making up for this is fighting with his fists.

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The story takes place in New Zealand in a lower class neighborhood in the 80's or 90's.
They often have trouble with police, as shown when they bring Boogie home; they've had to take him home at least once before.
The environment is characterized by financial issues (they don't have a lot money) and by the fear of getting the kids taken away. Later in the movie another problem arises; the macho father Jake starts being violent towards the mother, Beth, and later to the children. This causes the family to disperse, as his drinking problem becomes more and more serious (he also starts gambling) and at last Beth leaves him.