Waka Huia is in its 15th year of production. The series began as a result of the impressive successes of the Te Maori exhibition. In the early 1980's our kuia, koroua, and kapa haka had travelled the world alongside the artistic masterpieces of our tüpuna. The international community was stunned by the power of Te Maori. Whai Ngata and the late Ernie Leonard reflected on the disastrous consequences that would result if a plane load of kaumätua travelling back from exhibitions in the United States happened to 'drop out of the sky'. They were mindful too that the iwi knowledge of our tüpuna was a diminishing resource. Whai then devised Waka Huia as a television means to preserve the reo and mätauranga mäori of our kaumätua. Since its first transmission in 1987, Waka Huia has - in about 500 hour long episodes - captured for all time, the faces and voices of many kaumätua who are no longer with us. In the process we have created a vital and important audio-visual archive of Iwi and Hapü life and history. Waka Huia is an archival series. It records and preserves the language and concerns of fluent speakers of the Mäori language. This archival aspect is reflected in the particular history being spoken of, or, in the 'snapshot' that is taken of a certain moment in time of the Mäori world. The kaupapa we have covered have ranged from traditional Iwi and Hapü histories, to the political, social and cultural concerns of the moment. The programme content is wide and varied. In the course of a single year's transmission many rohe will be visited. Waka Huia attempts to preserve the Mäori language in its best form. It asserts a level of linguistic excellence that must be present in a society that is relearning its native tongue. In the course of its long production history, Waka Huia has travelled many thousands of miles to hundreds of marae and special tribal areas. It has recorded thousands of hours of körero with hundreds of our tüpuna. We are proud of a kaupapa which forms a body of knowledge of inestimable value for Iwi, and New Zealand.