The Heretaunga Women's Centre celebrates International Women's Day annually usually with a movie and nibbles. Men are welcome to attend.

This year we are thrilled with the permission of producer Nadia Maxwell to be screening two episodes from Shepherdess a specially commissioned for NZ television series. Even more exciting is one of the episodes Porangahau was filmed right here in the Bay!

Shepherdess is an amazing dedication to the resourcefulness and depth of talent to the women of the land in Aotearoa. The women portrayed are all connected by a sense of place, and share their stories of courage, commitment and community. Explored in the episodes are their sense of self, their whānau, their community, and the landscape in which the women live.

Shepherdess believes every woman has a story to tell. Led by the woman’s voice, Shepherdess leans into the rhythms and routines of life on the land as the series unravels their world, exploring their personal thoughts and feelings.

Rest assured the stories are not just about cows and grass but are intimate accounts of identity and culture, art and entrepreneurship, love and life and what it means ti bee a on on the land in Aotearoa today.

We will be screening two episodes from the series.

Episode Porangahau

Pōrangahau is a small but strong community in Central Hawke’s Bay. Tania Nicholas (Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Ngāti Ruanui, Ngāruahine) left her career as a Māori Land Court lawyer to follow her husband Orlando back to his hometown and has become involved in the community – including setting up a coffee cart in an old horse float in their driveway. Piri Galbraith (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Porou) married her highschool sweetheart, a local farmer, and runs two local businesses, the Kurawaka Retreat Centre and the village’s dairy. An English shepherd on a station, Izzi Corke, has found herself at home in Pōrangahau.

Episode Tora

Tora is an isolated community with a farming and fishing history located on the rugged South Wairarapa Coast. Here, Claire Edwards (Ngāi Tahu) runs Tora Collective with her partner Troy – harvesting kaimoana seasonally and only to order, they are on a mission to change New Zealand’s relationship with kaimoana; Kiri Elworthy runs the three-day Tora Coastal Walk, taking in the rugged coastline, native bush and farmland; and Fiona Firth who commutes two hours a day to work in town as a nurse from the farm where she lives with her husband and three kids.