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800 Words star Cian Elyse White’s spiritual homecoming

The TV stars meet the whanau
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As she ushers Woman’s Day on to her ancestral marae for a moving powhiri, 800 Words actress Cian Elyse White points out a small, bush-clad island that sits just off the edge of Lake Rotoiti, behind the intricately carved wharenui of Te Takinga.

“My great-great-grandparents, my great-grandparents and my grandparents are there,” she says, referring to the urupa burial ground atop the sacred isle of Motutawa. “My dad will be buried there and I’ll probably go there one day too. It’s such a special place.

“I sit up there when I need a bit of rejuvenation and regrounding. On a blue-sky day like this, it has the best view in Rotorua. It’s just so serene and beautiful. To some, knowing where you’ll end up is pretty morbid, but for us Maori, it’s just a part of the circle of life.”

After a traditional mihi greeting from Cian’s uncle inside the meeting house, we step back outside for the photo shoot and a cloud appears out of nowhere to shroud the harsh sun. “That’ll be my rellies looking after us,” smiles the actress.

Later, leaning up against the carvings of her ancestors on the side of the wharenui for our photos, she laughs, “I feel like I’m in a family portrait!”

Te Takinga marae is all about whanau for Cian, who is of Ngati Pikiao, Ngati Porou, Ngati Kahungunu and Ngai Tuhoe descent. And now it’s also a special place for the people she calls “my second family”, the cast and crew of the Kiwi-Australian drama 800 Words, after its lead actor, Erik Thomson, suggested an overnight stay at his co-star’s spiritual home during filming of the TVNZ 1 show’s second season.

“Maybe it’s his Scottish heritage, but Erik is such a family man – and having grown up here in New Zealand, he has a real affinity for Maori culture too,” tells Cian, 28, who plays staunch surfer girl Hannah on the show. “He thought it was really important for us to sleep together under the same roof and immerse ourselves in the culture, especially for the Australian cast because they live here for such long periods.”

One weekend, a “massive contingent” of about 30 cast, crew and family members – including Erik, his wife and their two young children, his on-screen son Benson Jack Anthony and his two sisters, as well as actors Emma Leonard, Jackie van Beek, Jesse Griffin, Paul Glover and Rob Kipa-Williams – descended on Te Takinga, where they were welcomed by an army of Cian’s whanau.

Haere mai!

“Adorably, my family follows the show because I’m on it and they’re proud of me, but they weren’t starstuck,” she laughs. “In fact, I heard one of the kuia ask, ‘Who are these people?’ For them,

it was about supporting me and recognising that these people are important to me.”

After a tour of the marae, the group enjoyed a hangi feast of pork, lamb, chicken, pumpkin, kumara and steamed puddings cooked by Cian’s cousins. “Erik helped pull it up out of the pit and it was delicious,” she says.

That evening, they all visited Cian’s family hot pools, which can only be accessed by boat. The actress recalls, “We had the place all to ourselves and it was just magic under the starlight. When we got too hot, we’d run down to the end of the jetty and go down the slide into the freezing-cold lake, then run back to the pools. Everyone had a go.”

Afterwards, it was back to the marae for karaoke, where Cian and Emma performed TLC’s “No Scrubs”. But it was Erik’s rendition of the Bee Gees classic “Stayin’ Alive” that brought the house down. Cian smiles, “It was the extended version, so it went for a whole nine minutes. I was in tears!”

Later, a guitar got brought out, and Erik, Paul and Cian took turns jamming to Pink Floyd and Dave Dobbyn, before they all piled on to mattresses laid out side-by-side in the wharenui.

“Man, there were a couple of snorers, but you get used to it!” laughs Cian. “We didn’t have time for any haka or weaving workshops this time, but it was just great to share kai and hang out while the kids all ran around together. They’ll remember it forever.”

Gesturing to the Woman’s Day crew, the star continues, “Like you, they’re whanau now. This is their home too. Whenever they come to Rotorua, they can walk freely on to the marae. That really affected everyone.

“Benson said to me as we were leaving, ‘I’ve been here in New Zealand for more than a year now, but this is the first time I feel like I’ve landed.’ That was really special. The whole point of the visit was to make them feel like they’ve arrived in the land.”

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