Although Broken Barrier was a success in terms of the number of New Zealanders who saw it upon its release, the film upset a lot of its viewersbecause of how it dealt with the issue of race relations in this country differently to how they were commonly perceived at the time. “Broken Barrier travels the route of covert racism in Aotearoa's society, exposed only when a Pakeha man forms a relationship with a Maori woman,” (Dennis et al, 44) and this caused outcry from the “white racist viewpoint that the film suggested miscegenation, to the strident Maori voice complaining that the film only skirted the issue of racial prejudice.” (Dennis et al, 44)
Covert racism does not “necessarily result in discriminatory behaviour ... but a critical factor is how they are translated into practice,” (Spoonley, 23) and Broken Barrier gave New Zealanders plenty of examples of how this covert racism worked in their own country, when most people were not aware they existed or had simply chosen to ignore these practices. Some of the obvious examples of covert racism in the film include Tom's friends' reaction to Rawi, when she is introduced to them. Rather than embracing Rawi into their midst, Tom's Pakeha friends and family shun her for being a Maori and in turn shun Tom for seeing a Maori woman.
Most noticeably there is a scene when Tom and Rawi are having dinner at Tom's parents' house, and Tom announces to the family that he and Rawi are engaged to be married. At this point Tom's father stops eating and leaves the table in disgust. These are all examples of covert racism because at no point does anyone tell Tom that he can not see Rawi because she is a Maori and he is a Pakeha. Rather, these things are all left unsaid and only conveyed in the characters' actions and in the musings of the voice-overs which run throughout the film.
Even the central character of Tom does not escape being influenced by the covert racism surrounding him. He travels the country as a freelance journalist selling stories to American magazines that perpetuate the savageness of the New Zealand Maori, and he even admits in one voice-over that his stories are mostly fabrications because the truth is dull by comparison. Even when Tom returns to Wellington to win back Rawi after falling out with her on the farm on the East Coast, he states with disgust that “I suppose Maori have to take whatever board they can get,” (Broken Barrier) when he takes in Rawi's simple lodgings. He also expresses his initial dismay when he finds out he is to share a room with a Maori, during his stint as a forestry worker in the middle of the North Island.
The film also shows that Maori were fully aware of this covert type of racism in New Zealand. For example in a voice-over provided by Rawi's mother, Kiri states how happy she is that her daughter is a nurse because “people see her as a nurse, not a Maori.” (Broken Barrier) In one of Rawi's voice-overs, as she looks upon a group of primary schoolchildren, she muses on how race does not matter when you are a child, so why should it matter so much when you become an adult? In the character of Alec, Rawi's father, we learn early on that he is the product of a European father and a Maori mother, yet it is only in Maori society that he is accepted, and not in the society of New Zealand Europeans.
Rather than be classed as mixed race, Alec is seen as a Maori who merely acknowledges some European ancestry, and this is confirmed by Kiri who states that Alec is one of the “fortunate Maori who's managed to hold onto his land.” (
Broken Barrier) This last statement of Kiri's also brings to the fore the divisions between Maori and Pakeha regarding land, with the tone suggesting that most of the land owned by Maori now resides in the hands of Pakeha.
Although the film's content involving bringing New Zealand's convert racism firmly in the public eye ended up angering both Maori and Pakeha theater goers, it seemed that directors and producers, John O'Shea and Roger Mirams were prepared for this backlash, and in fact may have even welcomed the discussions on race that Broken Barrier provided.
O'Shea and Miriams wanted to give New Zealand audiences "an examination of cultural difference and interracial intolerance," (Martin et al, 52) in the society they lived in at the time, and this is what they set out to do in producing Broken Barrier. Often classed as the founder of the New Zealand film industry, O'Shea was concerned about “the unique feature of New Zealand, the European culture and consciousness juxtaposed with a Maori culture and consciousness” and “this grinding of cultures finds a mean of articulation ... in his films.” (Moran et al, 327).
