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Ramai Hayward has been an actress, photographer, film-producer, director, singer, writer and painter. As wife and an assistant of her husband, film maker Rudall Charles Victor Hayward, she has travelled the world.
Ramai Hayward [nee Te Miha] talks about her first interest in acting at primary school in New Brighton, Christchurch and later at Queen Victoria College. In 1932, her mother died and she went home to Wellington. She took up a photography apprenticeship in Cuba Street for two years. She then went back to Auckland and opened a studio in Devonport and got a lot of clients from the naval base.
She was asked to audition for the part of Ariana in Rudall Hayward's film "Rewi's Last Stand" in 1938. She talks about filming the Battle of Orakau on the site of the original battle. She talks about the Māori women who had appeared in silent films before her, and recalls travelling the world with her husband, including making films in communist China in the 1950s.
They formed the China Friendship Society before going there, and she talks about some of the other members. She speaks about meeting Rewi Alley and interviewing him. She gave Mao Tse-tung a kiwi mat from King Kōroki. The documentary they made was called "Inside Red China". They also made "Wonders of China" in colour and "Children of China", an education film.
She talks about their newsreel film of Opo the dolphin, which was very popular worldwide. She talks about her influence on Rudall's work, particularly "To Love a Māori". She talks about promoting the film and why they decided to make it - to encourage more young Māori to take up trade training courses.
Since Rudall's death in 1974, she has found more time for her Māoritanga and her art, joining the Maori Women's Welfare League and Ngā Pūna Waihanga. She is involved in a land claim at Palliser Bay in Wairarapa, talks about her Māori family history in the region and her father's Pākēha family.
Waiata: Hoki mai e te tau