Maata Horomona | |
|---|---|
 Horomona in 1912 | |
| Born | 1893 |
| Died | 1939 (aged 45–46) Rotorua, New Zealand |
| Nationality | New Zealander |
| Occupation(s) | Haka dancer, actress |
| Notable work | Loved by a Maori Chieftess Hinemoa |
Maata Horomona (also known as Maata Gillies; 1893 – 1939) was a New Zealand haka performer and film actress.
In 1909, she was part of a troupe of traditional Māori dancers who performed for several months in New York, creating an interest in their culture. In 1912, she starred in three films shot by Gaston Méliès in New Zealand: Loved by a Maori Chieftess, Hinemoa and How Chief Te Ponga Won His Bride. These films, all released in 1913 only in the United States and considered lost, were the first fiction films shot in New Zealand. Maata Horomona was also the first non-Caucasian actress, in 1913, to have her portrait published in the Motion Picture Story Magazine's gallery of famous actors, eleven years before the second, Anna May Wong.
Maata Horomona's brief career illustrated several aspects of the New Zealand and international perception of Māori culture: the tension between the enduring stereotype of the beautiful, humble and easygoing vahiné (young woman from Tahiti), on the one hand, and the assimilation of the Māori and the disappearance of their traditional culture, on the other. It also witnessed the emergence of themes underlying the portrayal of Māori in cinema, divided between the legendary representation of a mythical Eden, the problems linked to integration between the descendants of settlers and indigenous people in New Zealand, and the tourist exploitation of Māori exoticism to promote the country.