Set against the imposing mountains and isolated beaches in a remote
part of New Zealand, This Way of Life is an intimate portrait of a
Maori family and their relationship with nature, adversity, their horses
and society at large.
Peter and colleen Karena are in their early 30’s. They have six
children and 50 horses. Masterful in the saddle and Hollywood
handsome, Peter is an outsider. Though European, Peter was adopted
into a Maori family and is Maori in all but skin. Driven by an
unresolved relationship with his father, Peter’s refusal to compromise
and his interaction with his world calls into question our assumptions
of bravery and heroism. He is a horse whisperer, thinker, hunter,
builder, husband and father.
Colleen Karena (Ngati Maniapoto) is the keeper of her family’s
taonga tuku iho (heritage). She is a parent in the old-fashioned sense,
for her the family is the centre of the universe and mothering the most
important job.
The Karena kids are unfettered and exuberant, the idea of risk alien
to them. Unimpaired by consumerism, the children’s Gameboys and
PlayStations are real horses and real guns used to hunt venison for
sustenance.