Better the Blood

Michael Bennett

2 ideas

1. Revenge killings for an 1863 colonial hanging

   In contemporary Auckland, Māori Detective Sergeant Hana Westerman investigates a series of ritualised murders. The killer is avenging a Māori chief executed in 1863 by six British soldiers, targeting their descendants. The case forces her to treat a 160-year-old act of colonial state violence as the live motive behind present-day homicides.

2. Indigenous officer as divided enforcer

   A Māori police officer embodies the state that has disproportionately imprisoned her own people, so she is distrusted by both institutions she belongs to. Hana's past role policing a Māori land protest ruptures her relationship with her activist daughter. Her professional competence is inseparable from her complicity in the system her community resists.

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