Story
Ko te whaea te takere o te waka
Mothers are the hull of the waka (ship) | Whakataukī (Māori proverb)
Kōpū, the Māori (Aotearoa New Zealand indigenous language) word for womb, symbolises the profound life-giving power of mothers. Kōpū also denotes the Māori word for Venus as the morning star - a persistent feminine symbol in many Western cultures and a guiding star in countless provincial religions.
Ranga Wairua | Inspiration
Our eponymous film channels the wisdom that accompanies this power and examines its influence on different spheres of life. In recent years, mothers have been thrust to the sideline of our culture as they care for their children. Yet traditionally, Mothers were seen as our counsellors when we needed critical advice, our workhorses when there was a burden to bear, and our experts on keeping bellies full or a household together.
While motherhood archetypes have gently evolved, a constant remains: the responsibilities bound to the role. Our film reexamines and reinvigorates our understanding of motherhood for a new generation of parents juggling career and parenthood, to help us re-learn the truth that mothers learn a valuable range of skills through the experience of child-rearing.
Taikura | Starting point
Consistently throughout history, mothers have been sidelined and limited to caregiving roles. Yet care is vital to society’s fabric. While views on motherhood have evolved, stereotypes and their incumbent penalties persist.
Our film reinvigorates this understanding and seeks to reevaluate parenthood, highlighting the skills gained through caregiving and its potential to enhance workplaces, governance, and sustainability.
Our tale commences by painting similarities between two diverse entries into motherhood. One starts with Claire Pellegrino, a French immigrant living in New Zealand, recounting her unexpected motherhood kickoff within the walls of an abortion ward. The other begins with Krystal Burrell, a native New Zealander Māori, with a fraught journey as a teenage mother emerging from an abusive relationship. Like many women raised within a patriarchal culture riddled with daily unconscious bias, both believed motherhood would be an obstacle to their professional aspirations. Despite the contrasts in their cultural background, they both acknowledged the servitude rooted in the role.
Yet, their perception pivoted drastically when confronted with a different viewpoint.
For Claire, in a “Westernised method”, her mindset shifted through market research involving interviews with a wide array of parents. Each conversation illuminated parallels between entrepreneurial skills and those honed through parenting: skills like empathy, resilience, creativity, problem-solving, and leadership thrown about the boardroom as necessary to success, were discreetly strengthened through caregiving. For Krystal, she found solace after reconnecting with Te Ao Māori - the indigenous universe, where motherhood’s value was restored. Our story draws inspiration from the multifaceted nature of motherhood, showcasing diverse voices and intertwining ancestral wisdom with scientific insights.
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“I have been asking men how many would swap their present job to be the main child caregiver at home. It's my read that 80% of them default to a view that this is not their role or at least think they actually have other priority roles.
To me this is the legacy of the gender inequality issues we face.”
— Te Aroha Grace (Stuff, 2022) “The persistent gender pay gap, particularly in relation to indigenous women, shows we don't value motherhood”
Whāinga | Objective
Power is in which story we tell our brain to believe. With “kōpū: Unconventional Motherhood Wisdom” we are gently moving the Overton window to change to the tenor of the conversation around motherhood.
Anchored in this progressive outlook, kōpū:Unconventional Motherhood Wisdom explores parenting stories by bringing in participants of diverse genders, cultures and demographics for an intimate peek into the fruits of their journeys. The movie embraces a multi-ethnic approach to the subject while interweaving science with indigenous perspicuity to examine motherhood's influence on different spheres and unsung values.
This story coincides with a global transition in how work, gender roles, governance and sustainability are perceived. Traditional models like the 9 to 5, 5-day work week are becoming untenable as our planet is beset by the unintended consequences of capitalist greed and overreach. Enter the mother, historically curbed beneath glass ceilings yet possessing the skills needed to mould enduring societies. Can we reframe parenting as a strength instead of an obstacle? If women regard motherhood as a career advantage, what impact could it have on workplaces? Might the fusion of indigenous wisdom and science lead to gender equality? How would our world appear when we turn to our mothers - the nurturers of our future, to address global challenges?
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Te Ara Ki Tua | What’s next
Can we shift the narrative so that parenting is seen as a boon, not a barrier to growth? Why has the Western world witnessed an era where mothers have been penalised? Answers to these questions are needed now more than ever, particularly in countries where indigenous lives have suffered from transient and interrupted parental connections.
When women themselves perceive motherhood as a worthwhile experience that can uplift their careers, what sort of impact could we expect in the workplace? What shockwaves could a mindset shift send to parental leaves and gender equity as a whole? For too long, motherhood has been seen as strictly a domestic experience, which has resulted in biases against working mums and limited resources for parents to harness their skills. What does that world look like where we look to our mothers – the growers of our future – for solutions to the problems facing our world?
Kaupapa | Purpose
Our desire is to reach gender equity by breaking the stigma associated with motherhood while honouring indigenous wisdom.
We aspire for any individuals, regardless of their gender, to truly blossom while tending to children, knowing the expansion of their skill set will transform them into more valuable individuals–both personally and professionally. We also wish for employers to retain and value a skilful workforce.
kōpū is a documentary project to springboard a broader social movement grounded in and inspired by Te Ao Māori wisdom. Our quest is for advocacy and radical thinking to upend the hidebound dogma of the workplace that has led to so much inequality and suffering in the name of maximising profit.
Our ethics revolve around Māori influences - an intentional representation of minorities and their mightiness and reminder of Māori whakaaro (ways of thinking) that have already shaped policy and societal change around the world. We wish to honour native communities whose histories have been overlooked. An underlying ambition shared by all team members who have roots in Jewish, Sikh, Ukrainian, and Lithuanian persecuted communities.
As a New Zealand production company honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi principle of equity, we wish to make the documentary free of charge to tangata whenua (native people), hapū and iwi (sub-tribes and tribes) who have contributed to the richness of this story. This is inherently attached to the principle of Tōna tūturutanga - restoring Māoridom. As a social enterprise, it is also core to our values and social impact model.
Part of our duty in following Te Tiriti o Waitangi is to reach and honour marginalised indigenous communities - Tōna tūturutanga (restoring Te Ao Māori). Māori and Pasifika women have been particularly stricken by a wider gender pay gap. A penalty that was amplified through their caregiving roles – roles that were traditionally treasured pre-colonisation.
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“By having a strategic focus on supporting working parents & dual-income families, it’s no coincidence that Nordic countries have the smallest gender gaps”
— Greg Pellegrino, Sally D'Amato, Anne Weisberg (Deloitte) “The gender dividend: Making the business case for investing in women”
