Movie Review - River Queen

I saw this movie a couple years ago and I really enjoyed it because it's based on things that really happened. It takes place in the Middle 1800's in New Zealand during the Titokowaru's War between the Maori people and New Zealand colonial forces. The culture of the Maori people is something I find really captivating, It's similar to that of the Mic Mac people in Canada and the Aboriginals in Australia. This movie is about a white woman who has grown up among soldiers close to where the Maori people live. She gets pregnant at a young ago by one of the Maori boys, and 7 years later her son is kidnapped by his Maori grandfather. When she does finally find her boy she becomes engrossed in the village way of life but is still torn between that and her white family she grew up with. As the war becomes more intense, mostly over land ownership and the Maori people not 'cooperating,' the woman must chose a side to stay with her boy who has become absorbed in the Maori lifestyle or to the soldiers and her up-bringing. The story in this movie isn't exactly like the Native people in Canada that we've touched base on in class but there are definite similarities. The Maori people had to struggle with European settlers coming to their country and eventually taking over parts of their land. Many of the villages were asked to sign a treaty that seemed to benefit bot the European people and the Maori, but it turned out they had land stolen and wars were fought. The European of course called them savages and said their way of living was uncivilized. Today the Maori people are very rich in their culture and still have strong traditions. They do struggle and have issues with their government but not like the Aboriginals of Australia and Mic |Mac of Canada/U.S. This movie is a good look into their culture and history and if you know stories of other people (Mic Mac & Aboriginals) then you can see the connections.