Where Whale Rider originated: author Witi Ihimaera and director Niki Caro

Me, Emma, Witi Ihimaera, Nicko and Jax
Originally uploaded by dizzytango

Witi Tame Ihimaera-Smiler, DCNZM, QSM (born 7 February 1944), generally known as Witi Ihimaera, is a New Zealand author, and is often regarded as the most prominent Māori writer alive today.

Ihimaera was born near Gisborne, a town in the east of New Zealand's North Island and is of Māori descent (Te Aitanga-a-Mahaki) and Anglo-Saxon descent through his father, Tom. He was the first Māori writer to publish both a novel[1] and a book of short stories. He began to work as a diplomat at the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1973, and served at various diplomatic posts in Canberra, New York, and Washington, D.C..In 1990, he took up a position at the University of Auckland, where he is Professor, Distinguished Creative Fellow in Māori Literature.

Most of Ihimaera's work consists of short stories or novels. He has written a considerable number of stories, with the most notable being works such as Tangi, Pounamu, Pounamu, and The Whale Rider (the last of which became a film of the same name).[1] His stories generally portray Māori culture in modern New Zealand. His work often focuses on problems within contemporary Māori society.

In 2004, his nephew Gary Christie Lewis married Lady Davina Lewis, becoming the first Māori to marry into the British Royal Family.


Niki Caro (born 1967) is an award winning film director, producer and screenwriter who was born in Wellington, New Zealand. Her most significant film to date is Whale Rider from 2002. It was critically praised and won a number of awards at international film festivals.[1] She went on to direct Charlize Theron in an Oscar-nominated performance in North Country.

Caro graduated BFA from the Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland in 1988, and MFA from Swinburne University of Technology.[2]

Caro's first movie was Memory and Desire, which was chosen for the New Zealand Prestigious Critics week in 1998. In 1999 the movie was voted best new film at the New Zealand Film Awards. She has been working for several years on a screen adaptation of Elizabeth Knox's novel The Vintner's Luck and will direct the film version in 2008. It was finished on the 12th of March 2009- After 6 years.[3]