According to this show New Zealanders are an exotic mix of personalities, values and tempers from around the world. In it well-known Kiwis discovered which parts of the national character their ancestors brought with them and why they are Here To Stay.
Series One
- Where would we be without whisky, frugality and emancipation? From the high country to the city of sails, New Zealand is as Scottish as they come.
- Are the Germans the reason Kiwis are so fond of war, and that beer and sausage combination? Do they explain our dry sense of humour.
- We discover how many things we have to thank (and blame) the English for, starting with Minis, rugby, fish and chips and roasts.
- From the goldfields, market gardens, leper colonies and butter pioneers to hip-hop artists. Is there a Chinese All Black? Can we shout out 'Asians Are Cool'?
- Why were the Irish blamed for bringing public drunkenness, religious violence, melancholy, prostitution and mental illness to New Zealand?
- Meet the wine pioneers, rock breakers and rock stars who have brought the Croatian/Dalmatian influence to New Zealand. Just what did those Maori wahine see in the guys wearing cravats?
Starring: Jackie Clarke, Ewen Gilmour, Michael Hurst, Bernadine Lim, Teresa Healey and Frano Botica. Contributions by Helen Clark, Maggie Barry, Neil Finn, Don McGlashan and many others
Series Two
- Actor Paolo Rotondo asks what the Italian flamboyance, love of wine, coffee, soccer and signorine means in modern New Zealand.
- Could we recognise New Zealand without the Pacific Islanders? Comedian Shimpal Lelisi finds out if love of the sea, a good joke and a family feast are part of the national psyche.
- The Dutch migrants argued with liquor laws, took on our sports stars and created shocking art. Bugman Ruud Kleinpaste goes digging.
- Michele A'Court wonders if New Zealand could have been a French colony, and finds our soup kitchens, schools and convents owe much to the tricolore.
- From turbans to taxi drivers, Bollywood to bottle collectors, actress Madeleine Sami discovers Indian migrants had a hard road to travel.
- And the Viking spirit has left traces in farming and forestry, but not food. Stephanie Tauevihi takes a pea-mould in search of her long-lost Scandinavian forebears.
Starring: Paolo Rotondo, Shimpal Lelisi, Ruud Kleinpaste, Michele ACourt, Madeleine Sami and Stephanie Tauevihi.
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