MĀORI TELEVISION UNWRAPS CHRISTMAS PROGRAMMING SPECIALS!

Māori Television is showcasing the station’s brightest stars in a bumper package of programming to celebrate Christmas. As whānau and friends relax across the nation’s backyard patios, holiday parks and shorelines, Māori Television will screen programmes celebrating the season and what it means for Māori.

In its second Christmas since launching in 2004, Māori Television will start the festive season with a KAI TIME ON THE ROAD CHRISTMAS SPECIAL on Thursday December 22 from 8.00 PM to 8.30 PM. Talented host Pete Peeti and his enthusiastic sidekick, Kingi Biddle, will catch up with whānau and friends from past shows during an on-screen three-course Christmas hākari (feast). They include Derek Fox from Mahia, Bill Tawhai of Te Kaha, Hōhepa Epiha from Matauri Bay and Piki Thomas of the New Zealand Fire Service.

Youngsters are invited to THE party of the year as Māori Television screens the PŪKANA CHRISTMAS SPECIAL on Friday December 23 from 5.00 PM to 6.00 PM. Join Matai Smith, Tumamao Harawira, Te Atirau Paki, Marama Gardiner and Taupunakohe Tocker for their annual Pūkana in the Park concert featuring reo Māori artist Ruia Aperahama, young singing sensation Theo Va’a, The Urban Beat Angels dance troupe and Mokoia Intermediate kapa haka. Plus there will be special appearances from Māori Television’s very own Kōrero Mai crew, and favourite Pūkana characters including Maka and Paka, Niti and Nati and, of course, the loveable kuia Bubu and Juju.

Later, a heart-warming holiday fantasy film, STATION NORD, takes the entire family on a magical journey to the enchanting world of Santa. Screening on Māori Television on Friday December 23 at 8.30 PM, the movie opens on a young postman who loses his way in a forest on a dark, snowy evening. Saved by an elf, he’s taken to Santa’s secret village and spends many years managing the ‘magic workshop’s’ mailroom until one fateful day, he receives a letter from a desperate little girl asking for help. Catch a sleigh to the magical land of the world’s most beloved folk figure, Santa!

Māori Television’s popular panel show ASK YOUR AUNTIE presents THE AUNTIES CHRISTMAS CRACKER on Christmas Eve, Saturday December 24 from 8.00 PM to 9.00 PM. For the first time, host Ella Henry will be joined by all 13 women who take turns on the panel as well as a live audience and band. The one-hour special will incorporate the aunties’ no-nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is wisdom related to Christmas subjects as well as behind-the-scenes footage and a chance to reflect on past shows. We also catch up with the aunties outside of the studio as they join in the seasonal activities.

Wartime tension, racism and family values form the core of Māori Television’s Christmas Eve feature film, A WIND AT MY BACK CHRISTMAS, on Saturday December 24 at 9.00 PM. Set in Bedford, Canada, this holiday classic chronicles the lives of the Bailey and Sutton families as they struggle to survive during the Depression. Never ignoring the reality of the 1930s, A WIND AT MY BACK CHRISTMAS celebrates the glory of the holidays while acknowledging some of the unfortunate prejudices in the pre-Second World War period. In the end, however, the Baileys and Suttons recognise that nothing is more important than family.

Māori gardening series KIWI MAARA celebrates the much-loved pohutukawa blossom with a Christmas special filmed at Coromandel’s Pohutukawa Festival. Screening on Christmas Day, December 25 from 5.30 PM to 6.00 PM, host Haimona Smale escorts viewers across the Thames Coast and Whitianga to taste authentic Coromandel food and wine and traipse the gorgeous gardens. The show takes in the stunning Coromandel Crimson Trail as well as the Stone Sculpture Symposium at Flaxmill Bay’s Eggsentric Café. Join KIWI MAARA for a tribute to our nation’s Christmas flower.  

Next, Māori Television’s flagship iwi events show MĀ TĀTOU takes a hardcase trip down memory lane for its Christmas Day special on December 25 from 6.30 PM to 7.00 PM. Presenter Te Hāmua Nikora will be in character as the lovable joker, Maha Tonu, to reflect and rejoice in the ‘best bits’ from the Sunday night show. MĀ TĀTOU offers iwi groups the opportunity to gain coverage of their events, community heroes and stories and has featured events such as the inaugural Wairoa Māori Film Festival, the primary school’s kapa hapa festival in Tauranga, and the launch of the Hone Tūwhare CD.

Māori Television is decking the studio with boughs of pohutukawa as it gears up for its annual Christmas extravaganza – TE HARINUI: A MĀORI TELEVISION CHRISTMAS SPECIAL – on Christmas Day, Sunday December 25. Screening from 8.00 PM to 9.30 PM, the sensational celebrations will be hosted by Mātai Smith of Pūkana fame and former Pēpi presenter Pirihira Hollings in what promises to be the programming highlight of Christmas Day. TE HARINUI will feature music and entertainment from a top-notch band fronted by Rewa Ututaonga as well as from Māori Television celebrities and personalities such as Te Hāmua Nikora (Mā Tātou), Rewa Hudson (Code), Tumehe Rongonui (Haa) and Māorioke winner Toni Baird. Even better, the Auckland City Mission is the show’s beneficiary charity this year. Don’t miss the best Christmas special ever!

Finally, a tale of tragedy and thwarted love starring Ralph Fiennes and Liv Tyler is the Christmas Day feature film, ONEGIN, on Māori Television on Sunday December 25 at 9.30 PM. The film is directed by another member of the Fiennes family, Martha, as she makes her big-screen directorial debut with a screen adaptation of the romantic verse by Alexander Pushkin. She won the Best Director Award for the film at the Tokyo International Film Festival in 1999 as well as the ALFS Award for British Newcomer of the Year at the London Critics Circle Film Awards in 2000.

Catch a bumper package of programming throughout the Christmas season on Māori Television!

Getting to Air

Our daily schedule is:

Tuning in to Māori Television

Viewers can tune in to Māori Television in five ways:

To receive Māori Television via the UHF frequency, viewers need to have a UHF aerial and be within the coverage area.

Via Satellite

If viewers are not within our UHF coverage area, they can access Māori Television via satellite by purchasing a satellite dish and receiver from their local television aerial installation service.

SKY Digital subscribers will find Māori Television on Channel 33 of their SKY remotes. They can tune in to Channel 33 now to catch highlights of programmes on Māori Television.

SKY UHF subscribers will find Māori Television on button 6 of their SKY remotes.

Via Saturn TV
If you receive Saturn TV, you can tune into Māori Television through channel button 33. Saturn Customers please: leave your decoders switched on to be able to receive this channel.

For More Information

Check our website www.maoritelevision.com or for guidance on how to tune-in call 0800 MA TATOU ( 0800 62 82868 )

Issue 93, 20 December 2005