You know Rachel House. The Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Mutunga actor has appeared as the no-nonsense, scene-stealing principal in Netflix’s Heartbreak High, voiced the character of Grandma Tala in Moana and played determined social worker Paula Hall in cult Kiwi classic Hunt for the Wilderpeople.
Beyond her appearances on screen she’s worked as an acting coach with fellow Kiwis Jane Campion (on Top of the Lake and The Power of the Dog) and Taika Waititi (on Boy, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Jojo Rabbit and Next Goal Wins). Her first feature-length film as a director, The Mountain, has been described as “an antidote for adulthood”.
Alongside other creatives Tweedie Waititi and Chelsea Winstanley, she’s been instrumental in the creation and release of Māori language versions of Disney films.
Over the weekend, House spoke at the Sydney Opera House’s All About Women festival. House’s talk and other programs of the festival are available to stream on demand.
Ahead of the talk, Broadsheet asked House for her thoughts on Māori storytelling and why she’s so hopeful for the future.
One of your key motivations is to pave the way for future generations of Māori women. Who were the women you looked up to when you were younger? Do you have people you look up to now?
Gosh! I can’t imagine me ever saying such a lofty comment. I hope I didn’t say that. Truth is my main motivation for most of my career was to survive doing what I loved doing. There wasn’t a lot of work for Māori actors or directors. And international work was more or less unheard of. Everything has changed now. I am so thrilled to see my sisters/friends like Simone Kessell in Yellowjackets, Keala Settle in Wicked, Keisha Castle-Hughes in FBI, Rena Owen in the live-action Moana film. I’m not sure I even dreamed of seeing ourselves in this global way. It really is glorious.
The women I most looked up to growing up were Princess Te Puea, Merata Mita, Donna Summer, Olivia Newton-John and Jane Campion. And in terms of actors it would be Whoopi Goldberg, Dame Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Angela Bassett and Dawn French. I’m happy to say that there are many Māori actors and directors now. And I’m proud to be part of that ever-increasing group. And brilliant Māori content creators are bursting through. That’s exciting.
In your work as an acting coach, you’ve worked with young actors on films such as Jo Jo Rabbit, Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Boy. You also directed some incredible child performers in your directorial debut The Mountain. What do you like most about working with children? What have you learnt from them?
I’ve been lucky to work with brilliant, imaginative, fun young actors. It’s a constant reminder to stay curious and the power of imagination. On the set of The Mountain we just invented games all the time. The most truly stupid games ever (lots made up by me) but we had the time of our lives. They teach us all really to stop being so serious. Play a dumb game and laugh.
You’ve been involved in the production of Māori-language versions of Disney films. How did those productions come about? Why are they so important?
Matewa Media (the production company who oversaw it) came out of a conversation between Tweedie Waititi and Chelsea Winstanley when the release of Moana first happened. I was just floating around the outskirts of their chats at the time. Families are huge Disney animation fans and it seemed like a brilliant opportunity to platform our language which would, in turn, grow the normalisation of our language. So many of our babies are te reo Māori first language speakers now. That’s been a huge and long-running movement [driven] by a lot of people, particularly Māori women.
The first movie was translated by Katarina Edmonds, Waldo Houia and Vikki Demant, who spent weeks of long nights and hours around my kitchen table or Tweedie’s office. Sometimes we worked until 3am and it was my job to keep the snacks and hot drinks flowing. I also took acting workshops with the chorus, which was fun. I was the performance coach on Moana and Tweedie oversaw the nuance and pronunciation. Then we co-performance-coached on The Lion King and I did a little bit on Frozen. Tweedie’s a pro now and doesn’t need me.
What are the biggest challenges to people looking to tell Māori stories in the next few years? How do we face these challenges?
We currently don’t have a government who places any value on the arts, Māori culture, or the environment, so that’s a challenge for our culture and creatives. What I’m hopeful about is the fabulousness, talent, confidence, tenacity, skill and can-do attitude of our Māori creatives who will continue to create content regardless. I also love that we have a growing international allyship and audience. We have not just survived. We are thriving.
