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6th
FEB

Michele Hewitson Interview: George Henare

Posted by karere under Maori News

The last time I saw George Henare, in 1998, he was playing, and playing at being, Caesar. He gave me a private performance while perched on a velvet chair in a hotel lobby.

  • He was, I remind him, hamming it up rather grandly then. “Was I? As was my station in life, at that time. Soon to be deposed. Now I’m being … What am I being? I’m being a very entrepreneurial Maori elder in the south of New Zealand who is always on the phone chatting in Japanese, Chinese, German … Sell, sell, sell. ‘You want a ceremony? Oh, that will cost you. You want a waiata, a song? A karakia, a prayer? It’s going to cost you. Koha, of course.”’

  • He whips out an imaginary calculator and does the sums.

    • He is “kaumata for hire” in Le Sud, a farce by Dave Armstrong set in a French-speaking South Island run by socialists. What fun. “Yes. It’s all part of the game of life. It’s good fun.”

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