Another yarn, with a point,, maybe
I am watching Rabbit Free Fence, a remarkable movie about aboriginal Maoris.
In 1966 I was in New Zealand with President Johnson for the Manila Summit Conference.
We stopped in Auckland, and because there were no suitable accomodations on shore, stayed on a boat, promptly dubbed The Tiltin' Hilton.
We were treated to a performance of Maori music --- haunting and beautiful.
I was seated next to Shana Alexander (Shaina, in Yiddish, means very attractive.)
The Maoris, replete with bones in their noses, began singing and dancing to the tune of Happy Days Are Here Again, The Democratic fight song of the seminal 1932 election, won in a landslide by NY Governor, polio-crippled Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Shana gasped. Here father had written the tune (!)
Moral: It's small world after all...
Ben
In 1966 I was in New Zealand with President Johnson for the Manila Summit Conference.
We stopped in Auckland, and because there were no suitable accomodations on shore, stayed on a boat, promptly dubbed The Tiltin' Hilton.
We were treated to a performance of Maori music --- haunting and beautiful.
I was seated next to Shana Alexander (Shaina, in Yiddish, means very attractive.)
The Maoris, replete with bones in their noses, began singing and dancing to the tune of Happy Days Are Here Again, The Democratic fight song of the seminal 1932 election, won in a landslide by NY Governor, polio-crippled Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Shana gasped. Here father had written the tune (!)
Moral: It's small world after all...
Ben
posted by Ben Wattenberg at 6:37 PM
1 Comments:
Indeed the film is great. However, you have the name wrong, the tribe wrong, and the location wrong. The film is called Rabbit Proof Fences and it is set in Australia not New Zealand. The story is not about the Maori at all but about the Aboriginals in Austrilia -- two very distinct groups of people. I only spent 3 years living in NZ but I can't remember ever hearing of, or seeing, a Maori who had a bone through their nose as you remember. Plenty of facial markings but no bones through the nose.
Post a Comment
<< Home