The actor and star on the rise talks to Delilah Te Aōrere Pārore Southon about connection, wairua and reclamation - and the superpower of being Māori.
Erana James (Ngāti Whātua Orakei, Waikato Tainui) has a glow about her, a vibrancy that's hard to ignore. The rising actor oozes this brightly eclectic, kakariki paua-shell aura that is rare and unmissable. The strong, proud and fiercely driven wāhine from the far North is also at the beginning of a long tenure into shaping culture as we know it, with roles in the Amazon Prime series The Wilds and the upcoming film One Winter. She is someone I could imagine talking to all night under the stars, having aunty yarns and casting spells to the abyss.
Raised in Whangārei and now based in Naarm Melbourne, the 23-year-old says that her sense of home has only grown stronger as she’s been away from Aotearoa. “I’ve come to realise it's the whenua that connects you”. She is privy to the fact that connection is a huge factor to everything she does, and that “if you don’t return to Aotearoa enough, you will feel that disconnection”.
Being Māori has its superpowers; they’re unspoken, only felt. It is a staunch knowing and understanding of identity, and it is an ode to all those who have come before you, and those to come after. That superpower starts in the decadent embrace of Papatūanuku and all her gifts, glory, and essence; something that Erana is embracing at full force. Through a beaming smile as we chat over FaceTime on a Friday evening, Erana attests that, “being Māori, comes with a superpower, and I can tap into that superpower anytime”.
The star-on-the-rise, known for her recent role in the Amazon series The Wilds and the 2017 film The Changeover (alongside Melanie Lynskey, who played her mother, and co-directed by Miranda Harcourt and Stuart McKenzie), recalls a time with her American friend Sarah, sitting at a cafe in Aotearoa. Tawhirimatea [the god of weather] was blowing a gale and her friend exclaimed: “Dude, let me take a picture of you, the elements are just good on you here, look at you, look at you”.
While Sarah sat in overwhelm by the breeze and wilderness of the whenua, Erana basked in the fact that the elements do look good on her, ruffling her tui feathers, and her korowai of dreams.
She is a wāhine of her land, and it's the land that is feeding Erana with the wairua and knowledge to take on worldwide film and television projects. Her genuine aroha for the whenua is one way that Erana salutes those who have come before her, those who will come after her, and the space she is currently creating as wāhine toa.
Papatūanuku is a strong ally that Erana uses to her advantage to feel grounded, alive and tap into when feeling afloat and in the clouds. Her māma Jackie has always served her with the OG wise-mum-chat: that “the ground, Papatūanuku is there, to ground you, and Tawhirimatea, the wind, is there to energise you and lift you up”. Two unwavering facts, which are a constant to feeling grounded and connected. If everything else in your world isn’t going your way, the ground and the wind will always reconfigure your wairua.
Her latest role is a lead in One Winter, an upcoming Aotearoa film about the 1981 Springbok Tour also starring Minnie Driver, Rhys Darby, Julian Dennison and James Rolleston. She plays young wāhine, who is ignited with the spark of resistance, reclamation and staunch activism.
She awakens Māoridom within the character she plays, which has become a personal thing for Erana too. To play these roles wouldn’t be for the faint-hearted, but it is the guidance of her tūpuna which gently pushes her to these spaces to shine her light. The character portrayal has pushed Erana into tapping into her own intergenerational mamae that lies within her whānau DNA. “It made me think about everything my Dad went through, his father, and his father’s father, and all the way back”.
Her last few projects have allowed Erana to feel “seriously, seriously re-connected” in Te Aō Māori and to her whānau. This connectedness has also been a vehicle to understand the histories that lie dormant within the mystic walls of what it means to be Māori as a people, not just a person.
It's through a process of re-connection with Papatūanuku, herself and Ranginui that she can see and feel that deep grief from bygone eras. The process of reclamation, and sitting with this pain that lies within, is a tribute to having found the duality of aroha, and balance.
She navigates, feels, empathises and understands that deep grief and packages it up for true authenticity. She then uses it all, to become the character and display a performance that is real, fierce, vibrant, and cutting-edge. Unmissable. You feel this in Erana, and you see it in the way she holds herself, you can see how she has super abilities to deeply get to know the character and then essentially become them.
Her role in One Winter has come with its challenges, but it has led to forgiveness to herself for not being as in touch at times. It has reclaimed a part of her, and ignited a new connection with what’s truly important.
It is the reflection on the past, and feeling the essence of the wāhine who came before us, where you begin to understand that at times, wāhine māori weren’t allowed to be who they were or wanted to be. She’s part of a generation of new voices that are using theirs for those who couldn’t.
Erana creates space for this kōrero by burning their fire, even brighter. She enlivens a new narrative for those who couldn’t share, but reimagines a new one. She is carving a path from the kete of knowledge for her mokopuna. It's where her Māori superpower shines through: using her generous heart, depth and understanding of the world around her, to truly garner the raw realities and bring it to the screen in a gentle, fierce, yet modern way — ultimately acting as a healing elixir for others.
While Erana spent time in Te Waipounamu [South Island] filming One Winter, she mentions how the whenua had a huge effect on her view of the connection as people we have to the sacred soils below. Driving to work every morning, she would look how the sky kissed the maunga, how the sun caressed in the rolling green and brown hues of the valley, and how her place in the world was small, but also big.
She’s been pondering a lot about the origins of our ancestors. “I have been thinking about how our people came to Aotearoa, how they came across this land… and how they chose this whenua, to settle, spend time, and the reasons as to why this is the place”. A uniquely real perspective that has allowed Erana to cast her generational mind back to seeing the land from that perspective, and genuinely reconnect to those moments. “It’s been pretty amazing,” she says. Everything she does, and everywhere she goes, it's been top of mind.
Tapping into Māoridom, and stepping into the industry, working alongside other Māori performers has been “so powerful and so real”. It's that reconnection that highlights the importance of identity if you want to make change and create pathways.
The past few months have done a lot for her wairua, as she explores what being Māori means on a deeper level. It takes a staunch determination to look to the past, to move forward. But, you need to surrender to that mystic navigation to unleash your mana to the world. If this is just the start of her career, then I can only imagine what the future holds for her. It's big, bold and as loud as the aunties cackling in the Marae kitchen after dinner. That paua shell aura of Erana’s will continue to glow brighter than Matariki, and her wairua will fully dazzle into mystic spaces to offer her heart as food for thee.
As artists, we conjure magical figures, animate partial connections and weave fictions. We become, and create stories in order to thrive and live. In the poised case of Erana James, she is weaving the knowledge found in the Kete of wisdom from her whānau, and the ancient karakia of wāhine voices, to urgently push a kaupapa, and to reimagine the future of Tino Rangatiratanga.
Storytelling is a taonga, and for Erana, being able to present stories with such elegance and fierce grace is the true taonga.
Whaia e koe te iti kahurangi
Me tuoho koe,
He Maunga teitei.
Seek after your innermost dream
And if you bend,
Let it be to the highest mountain.
