The Haka Party Incident
On May 1, 1979, the Maori and Pasifika activist group He Taua confronted University of Auckland engineering students over their annual “haka party”– a racist and drunken mock haka – in what became a pivotal moment in Aotearoa’s race relations. Katie Wolfe’s stirring documentary revisits the event through archival footage and unfiltered contemporary interviews. Adapted from the director’s acclaimed play, the film is suffused with tension, legacy, and painful introspection. With powerful juxtapositions of the past and the present, it interrogates what has changed and what hasn’t – and what remembrance really means. A vital documentary that reclaims forgotten history and honours those who stood up, and changed a nation.
- Guest filmmaker introduction and Q&A will take place at the Dendy Newtown screening on Tuesday 10 June and the Event Cinemas George Street screening on Friday 13 June.
- Limited seats are available for patrons requiring access for wheelchairs, low vision and hearing loop. Please contact our ticketing team directly on 1300 733 733 or tickets@sff.org.au to complete your booking.
Films showing at this event
Tickets
Sydney Film Festival acknowledges Australia’s First Nations People as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the land, and pay respect to the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, upon whose Country SFF is based.
We honour the storytelling and culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across Australia.
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