Unlikely Kin

Whales, trees, and kinship beyond species.

Filmed over five years, the film follows elder Hori Parata (Ngāti Wai) and his son Te Kaurinui as they lead the sacred practice of harvesting stranded whales—not for consumption, but to honour whakapapa and revive traditional medicine used to treat kauri dieback, a disease killing New Zealand’s ancient trees. Alongside this, we follow their conservation work protecting the kiore, the Polynesian rat that arrived in Aotearoa with the great Māori migration. Interweaving themes of kinship between species, cultural survival, and Māori-led conservation, the film offers rare access to a sacred world where whales, forests, and even rats are revered as living ancestors.