Transcript
A Tongan American military veteran started a petition to pull the show Jonah from Tonga off America's HBO cable network in 2014.
The Tongan teenager played by Australian comedian Chris Lilley was seen as violent and disrespectful to Tongan culture.
The petition went viral and was signed by almost 12,000 (11,958) supporters.
It also provoked a response from the Samoan writer Morgan Godfrey who wrote an opinion piece for the Guardian newspaper.
"I thought it was really problematic for a white Australian to critique racism as he claimed in the way that he did because I didn't think it was clever or smart to dress as a Tongan teenager literally with brown makeup on, faking an accent, faking a Tongan accent and using that as a critique of racism because it's actually a form of brown face."
Mr Godfrey says the character of Jonah reinforces racism and he is disappointed that Māori Television is to broadcast the show.
"I think that's a good way to look at it. What are the boundaries for white fellas like Chris Lilley when it comes to racism. When I was at school and Summerheights High came on, mates would watch it, they didn't see this elegant critique of racism. What they saw was this white fella playing a dumb coconut and they laughed along at the dumb coconut. They didn't laugh along at the white racist that he was critiquing, so I think that's the problem there."
A statement from New Zealand's Human Rights Commission says it's best that the television network consults the Tongan community here.
"While beloved by some, others find this character offensive. We think it would be a good idea for Maori Television to talk with Pasifika communities, particularly Tongan Kiwis, to see what they think as their views matter most in this scenario."
Maori TV asked Will Ilolahia to gauge the views of New Zealand's Tongan community.
"Actually was asked by Maori Television what I thought and I put out a quick survey with some Tongan people both young and old and there was an agreement that it was concerning, but the overall feedback I got was that was that it's great to laugh at ourselves now and then and to be honest, I actually got shocked."
Mr Ilolahia has deep connections with the Tongan community and has a background in sociology and statistics.
"Tongan youth were the ones that I actually initially approached, church leaders. The gender balance was probably about 60-40 to male. Obviously all New Zealand base. There was no consultancy with those overseas and probably skewed to Auckland, but the majority of us Tongans live in Auckland anyway, being the second largest P.I community in Auckland, but third in Aotearoa."
Maori TV's Head of Content Mike Rehu says the broadcaster has been sensitive in airing the series.
"We do have some acquisition staff here at Māori TV who are part Polynesian and part Māori and they were the people that thought this might be a good product and piece of content for our channel, so we did through that process take up some consultation with the Tongan community and we got the green light from who we feel is a pretty good wide feedback from the Tongan community."
Mr Rehu says ultimately you can't please everyone.
"We've got to understand that one or two people maybe upset by it, but that's the issue we have with comedy and in particular satire in New Zealand. You'll note that a lot of the mainstream channels don't do comedy in NZ. We decided two years ago to do it because we know it's successful with engaging people especially young Maori males, but also the Māori community like to laugh at themselves. That's the thing with satire, it does challenge people sometimes."
Mr Rehu says the series starts on Maori TV this week.
