The story of Peter and Colleen Karena and their six children is not about to send thousands of Americans to the North Island of New Zealand, to live in tents on a beach and to wrangle some four dozen horses. The Karenas are the stars of “This Way of Life,” a strange way indeed. The documentary opens today as part of the Webster University Film Series and runs through Sunday.
They’re Maoris, and they live a very basic, back-to-nature life. Peter hunts and kills game like deer and wild boar, butchers it, even cooks it. His real “job,” if you can call it that, is breaking and working their horse. At times, he works in town as a truck driver or a super-handyman. Colleen exemplifies the stay-at-home housewife, cooking, cleaning, sewing, growing vegetables, caring for the little Karenas. The children, ranging in age from 11-year-old Llewelyn to infant Taylor, bookend siblings Aurora, Corban, Elias, Malachi and Salem. All are free spirits in every sense of the word. They have basic literacy skills, but they run free and wild.
There’s bad blood between Peter and his father; the elder Karena feels he is not shown proper respect for his parental authority. In fact, when Peter and Colleen’s house burns, some suspicion is focused Dad’s way. Peter and Colleen simply move to the beach, build a couple of lean-tos, pitch some tents and resume their lifestyle, though the horse herd re-grows and corrals are built. It’s an interesting tale (it took some four years to shoot), and there’s some fascinating island scenery, but it certainly shows that, as Janis Joplin sang, “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.”
This Way of Life opens today at the Winifred Moore Auditorium on the Webster Univeersity campus and runs through Sunday.
—Joe