Hepi Mita on discovering his mother's past in his new film Merata: How Mum Decolonized the Screen

Hepi Mita always knew there was a part of his mother's life that she never shared with him. His mother was the world-renowned Indigenous filmmaker, Merata Mita, and in the '80s and '90s she made groundbreaking documentaries about the injustices faced by the Māori people of New Zealand.

She accomplished this while also raising five kids as a single mother, surrounded by political unrest. By the time Hepi was born, Merata's career had taken off, but when Hepi recently decided to make a film about his mother's early years, he knew he'd need to confront some painful family trauma.

He joined host Tom Power in the q studio to talk about his new documentary, Merata: How Mum Decolonised the Screen, which he made as a way to discover new parts of his mother's story as well as to share her greater legacy with the world.

Click 'listen' near the top of this page to hear the full conversation.

— Produced by Ben Jamieson