The Legend of Ureira: Our Movie

Waikino School is proud to have made it's own movie, retelling the tale of 'Ureira,' our local Taniwha. Please enjoy watching this film and feel free to share this link with your family and friends. Our many thanks to Martin Humphreys and Jaun Fisher for making this movie possible. 

Waikino School made a film called “The Legend of Ureia”.  The film is about a terrible taniwha named Ureia who is continually stealing and eating the young women around our area. Ureia travels up the Ohinemuri River, and gains information from his two sentinel taniwha – Hotaiki in Paeroa and Waikino at Waikino. A fierce tohunga named Hamea decides to kill the taniwha. A huge fight is carried out and the tohunga and his warriors return victorious.

Before filming could begin, the children were involved in the making of props with a lot of help and support from Teresa Hakaraia. As Robyn Erasmus explains, “first we had to make the big puppet of Ureia. Teresa made the frame using chicken wire, hula hoops and newspaper. The children had to put heaps of paper on the face and it took almost two weeks to finish pasting, painting and decorating. Teresa painted it with blue with streaks of white, purple, green and black. She stuck paua shells on the eyes and blue material for the body. Now the whole Taniwha is finished it looks amazing!”

We prepared ourselves for five weeks - the haka, poi, taiaha, making fierce faces and more – that has all been on our timetable. Craig Burrell taught the warriors the haka, a highlight of our film. Holly Elson – Fisher is the voice of the taniwha, Waikino who tells the story and has been lucky to have the help of Matua Don Sinclair for help with Te Reo. Two professional film makers, Jaun Fisher and Martin Humphreys are filming our story. Waikino Schools native area was used along with different locations around Dickeys Flat to film the action.

Josh Loveridge is a warrior in “The Legend of Ureia”. He wrote – “ we had to arrive early to Dickey’s Flat. It was freezing cold and there was frost on the ground. We had some things to eat. Then we got into our costumes and had moko put on our chins. We went and watched the girls doing poi. We had to hide in the bushes and then we JUMPED out and we did the haka. I felt strong and nervous at the same time.”

Amberley Kindley was part of the team who played Ureia. She stated that dying was the hardest of all as “we had to keep still and quiet and I was not very good at that so I tried my best. I didn’t move a bit and I didn’t make a sound. I was proud of myself.”

Caitlyn Growden was part of the poi group and said “it was freezing cold having to do the poi dance in our grass skirts and bare feet. We had to do it over and over to get it right which took about one hour.”

When the filming had finished, the editing and collating could take place. However, once filming had finished the job still wasn’t over. The children were busy on an Art unit – making Taniwha masks and other Maori themed art works, ready for a display in the Waihi College foyer for the movie's opening night. 

The film was a huge success and played to a stunned full house. I'm sure after watching the film you can see why. The Legend of Ureia has become a legend itself in Waikino School film making.