A locally shot documentary feature film exploring the importance of women’s birthing choices through the stories of Pacific mothers reclaiming indigenous practices premieres in Rarotonga tomorrow.

“Pacific Mother” is a powerful award-winning feature documentary that explores the fundamental issue of women reclaiming their birthing choices.

It will be screened in Rarotonga for the first time tomorrow evening at the Empire Cinema. Tickets are available at The Café located inside The Beachcomber Art Gallery.

The documentary feature follows Japanese actor and free diver Sachiko Fukumoto as she joins midwives and Pacific mothers Ioana Turia – Rarotonga, Cook Islands, Kimi Werner – Hawai’i, and Rava Ray – Moorea, French Polynesia, to advocate for women reclaiming indigenous birthing practices.

The film shows that when women are supported emotionally, physically and culturally, they are more likely to have an encouraging birth experience, whether it’s in the hospital, at home, on land or in water.

Filming started before the first Covid lockdown, then continued through Zoom sessions during the lockdown.

Cook Islander Ioana Turia was pregnant with her first child.

“It was my love and experience in and for the ocean… tying that into my journey through pregnancy,” says Turia.

She explained that in oe vaka training the call to pick up the pace is “push”.

“My coach (Vaea Melvin) was with me in the delivery room shouting “push”, it was almost like I was transported back into the canoe. Sometimes the ocean can be unforgiving and we experience the adrenalin and sometimes you feel like you’re fighting for your life and I was able to draw on that energy to help me through pushing my baby out,” said Turia, who gave birth to a beautiful baby girl Maiata Beasley.

In “Pacific Mother”, writer/director Katherine McRae develops the theme of her successful short film, Water Baby (2019), which recorded Fukumoto’s own water birth in Aotearoa New Zealand since she couldn’t get the water birth she wanted in Japan.

“We ended up making a short film about her… and New Zealand allows women some choice,” McRae said.

She said their focus was on the Pacific, wanting to see who had the choice of a home birth, a water birth, etc.

“There’s a belief that’s called eco-feminism about women, we care obviously about our children but we also care about the planet and we want to make sure the ocean is in good condition to hand on to our children.”

McRae, producer Migiwa Ozawa and the Cook Islands very own, Karin Williams, consultant and international producer, are visiting Rarotonga for the first screening of the film.

Williams got involved in the project to support McRae and Ozawa by providing advice and helping them make “a really beautiful film”.

“Putting together a feature documentary is a massive job particularly filming in Covid, filming in five different countries with different funding sources … there’s a lot of contracting and budgeting, there’s logistical and practical that no one ever sees,” she explains.

Film director and producer Glenda Tuaine of Motone Productions, the creative company of the Cook Islands, said “we are very excited to have the launch of Pacific Mother”.

Local technicians and crew John Beasley, Nui Rarotonga’s Lisa Hesp and Rereao Vano, Mo Newport, Pouarii Tanner, Logan Fletcher, Mark Short, Jim Perkins and Kutia Tuteru have also worked on this film.

Tickets are $15.