With her heartfelt and hilarious short film 'Wait, Wait, Now!' part of this year's Five Films for Freedom, Ramon Te Wake speaks to Michael Blyth about celebrating her trans and Māori identities on screen.
There is a scene in Ramon Te Wake’s short film, Wait, Wait, Now!, in which Sam, hesitant but curious, asks his best friend Alex what it feels like to venture outside in drag. After a brief pause, Alex sums it up with a single word: freedom. It’s a simple but powerful moment - one that encapsulates not just the heart of the film, but also the essence of Te Wake’s storytelling. As a trans Māori filmmaker, she understands that freedom isn’t just about personal expression; it’s about carving out spaces where queer identities can thrive.
This is just one of many reasons why Wait, Wait, Now! is a perfect fit for this year’s Five Films for Freedom campaign. Both heartfelt and hilarious, the film follows teenagers Alex and Sam who seize the opportunity of being left home alone to transform Alex’s family bungalow into their own private drag paradise. Based on Te Wake’s own childhood antics, their story also mirrors the real-life experiences of countless queer youth who find liberation in creativity and connection, and through this universal narrative, Te Wake reminds us that true freedom - the kind Five Films for Freedom champions - isn’t just about being seen. It’s about being seen on our own terms.
For Te Wake, storytelling is inseparable from her identities as both queer and Māori. “Being Māori is such a huge part of our lives here in Aotearoa (the Māori name for New Zealand),” she explains. “Indigeneity is so important to people. And then you also have your queerness. We call it Takatāpui - an umbrella term for LGBTQIA+ people. So you can be anything and sit under that.”
Her cultural and queer identities shape not only the stories she tells but also how she tells them. “All of my work has been Māori-focused or queer-focused or led. I think I will always have an element of my culture woven into all the stories I tell, and probably likewise my queer stories. It’s just intertwined into my storytelling expression, but also my expression as a human. And that feels comfortable to me.”
However, she acknowledges that as an artist, she is keen to explore a range of subjects, envisioning a future where her storytelling expands beyond identity-focused narratives. “I’m not always going to want to be driven to tell trans stories because I have such a huge imagination, and there are so many other layers and levels of society to explore.” But in the current climate, she feels a responsibility to be visible. “With the way the world is, we need to be front and centre in representation, because we’re fighting to survive and have a voice. We can’t be erased. These stories are really important.”
The need to create space for queer Māori voices isn’t new for Te Wake. “I worked on a show 20 years ago called Takatāpui, the first indigenous queer series in the world. That was pretty exciting for us in terms of laying down a foundation.” Since then, she believes progress has been made. “I think we’re getting better in Aotearoa at having queer stories on screen, and more specifically, Māori and Takatāpui stories. We’re not a country that’s too far behind, and we want to see representation.” She also sees a link between increased indigenous representation and greater queer visibility. “We want to see more Māori stories on screen, and as a result, we want to see equally as many queer stories. I don’t know why, but in some way, they go hand in hand.”
This push for representation is not about introducing something new but about reclaiming what has always been there. As Te Wake is quick to point out, LGBTQIA+ identities are not new to Māori culture. “Takatāpui has been a part of Māori culture since the beginning,” she explains. “When you look at Pacific Island cultures, the words that describe gender have always been part of indigenous culture. We know this, our history tells us this, our historians tell us this.”
Despite this deep-rooted history, Te Wake acknowledges that the introduction of Christianity and colonial influences pushed queerness to the margins. “With every country, with the introduction of religion and Christianity, it always really puts our position further and further down the totem pole. And we, as a culture, as a country, have to claw our way back and go, hey, remember us, we were here back on the same day as you.”
Yet, even in the face of historical erasure, she believes Māori queer identities continue to flourish. “I feel like, in most places, we whistle, but here in Aotearoa, we really find spaces for our queerness to thrive. We find spaces for our Takatāpui whānau to thrive.”
She also sees a growing movement to ensure Māori queer and trans voices are not just included but celebrated. “I’ve been getting funding to attend festivals around the world, and one of the biggest focuses is on queer, Takatāpui voices - Māori-led, trans-led, queer-led projects. People want to see us more and more, but they also want authenticity.” Te Wake sees Wait, Wait, Now! as part of that shift. “It really offers up a real, truthful, authentic voice that explores families - but also Māori families and whakapapa.”
For Te Wake, whakapapa - one’s genealogy and connection to land, ancestors, and community - is a foundational force that informs both her personal life and her work as a filmmaker. “Whakapapa is essentially who you are and where you come from. When somebody introduces themselves, whether it’s in a public setting or it’s just a personal exchange, they generally lead with their whakapapa. It gives a description of who you are, where you’re from, what your iwi is, what your mountain, your lake or river is, what your hapū is. It’s a real grounding exercise.”
She does, however, acknowledge that for many urban Māori, herself included, there can be a disconnect from language and culture. “I didn’t grow up in my marae. I didn’t grow up with my iwi. We didn’t learn our language in our back pockets. We grew up urbanised, and that detachment from language can also mean a detachment from culture.”
Filmmaking became a way for Te Wake to bridge that gap. “For my first 20 years, what was so present for me was my queerness. But when I started working on Māori television and Takatāpui, that was a great step into my language journey. It was my first connection without shame. And there’s a lot of shame and fear if you are disconnected from your language.”
Now, she actively incorporates Māori culture into her work. “When I’m casting, I’m looking for Māori people. Can they speak the language? How can we casually add te reo into our lines or scenes?”. What she once felt detached from is now woven into the fabric of her work, not by choice but by instinct. “It’s in my life, and I think it’s just naturally a really reciprocal relationship between the exchange of Māoriness and story.”
In connecting with Māori culture through her work, Te Wake is not just expanding its presence today but preserving it for tomorrow. “We’re all about preserving our culture and history - or queer identity.”
This act of preservation is something Te Wake wholeheartedly embraces. “I think queer people have to do that. We have to consider what this looks like on our history line. I think it’s because we’re so connected to our fight and our journey, and our resilience and our self-preservation that we know it’s really important to just capture these, even put them into a historical capsule, for communities and for generations to follow.”
Whether today, tomorrow, or years from now, Te Wake hopes that her work sparks conversation - and that those conversations lead to change. “If Wait, Wait, Now! makes parents think differently about their children and how they want to parent, and it also makes parents smile… Look, every filmmaker’s got to have a film out there that makes people smile.”
And as part of Five Films for Freedom, Wait, Wait, Now! is poised to get the entire world smiling. “Thinking about that global exposure and the conversations it could start - it’s really special; it feels perfect. It feels like an alignment, a really beautiful alignment.”
Te Wake’s work is as much about preserving her heritage as it is about expanding its possibilities, and, much like Alex and Sam rifling through mum’s closet to find the perfect outfit, she continues to seek the spaces in which she can express herself in the most authentic way possible. More than anything, Te Wake wants to create on her own terms, without compromise, without restriction. To have the one thing that every artist truly wants - freedom.
