Morrison\u2019s feet are firmly on the ground in the new season of local documentary series Origins, which returns to TVNZ this week. Season three sees the broadcaster, author<\/a>, reo M\u0101ori expert and 2025 screen personality of the year<\/a> follow in the footsteps of his ancestors as he discovers the history and legacies of early M\u0101ori in Aotearoa. In seasons one and two, Morrison traced the journey of his t\u016bpuna back to Hawaiki and followed the voyage of k\u016bmara from South America across the Polynesian Triangle to Aotearoa. This season, however, sees Morrison stay mostly in Aotearoa. He travels the motu to find out about the first humans who arrived here from Hawaiki, why they stayed and how they adapted to survive in a new and unfamiliar land.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Making Origins was a deeply personal experience for Morrison, who says this latest season is filled with \u201cso much wow factor\u201d. The opening moments of the first episode see him brought to tears holding the toki that was used to carve his ancestral waka. He travels to Tahiti Nui to learn about the ancestors who departed for Aotearoa, and sails into the Pacific ocean to find out what it was like for his t\u016bpuna on their long sea voyage to their new whenua.\u00a0<\/p>\n Morrison spent three months filming the latest season, and says it was an immense privilege to spend that time experiencing how his ancestors lived during their first 100 years in Aotearoa.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou realise that there\u2019s strong connections on a whole lot of different levels with people, especially into eastern Polynesia,\u201d he says. \u201cTo be able to physically go and see the areas that are in our oral traditions, to stand in places where our really illustrious ancestors were and talk to the people there \u2013 that\u2019s really enriched my knowledge of who I am and what our origin story is.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Enriching knowledge is exactly what Morrison hopes Origins will do for those watching the show from the comfort of their own homes. The series uses a mix of Western science, archeology, m\u0101tauranga and k\u014drero tuku iho to explain what Aotearoa was like 1000 years ago, and the success of the first two seasons proved to Morrison that many New Zealanders are interested in M\u0101ori history and want to know more. It\u2019s important that New Zealanders connect to the history of the country they live in, says Morrison, and he wants Origins to open the door for non-M\u0101ori viewers to access M\u0101ori culture and better understand the ways indigenous people interpret the world around them.\u00a0<\/p>\n Morrison hopes New Zealanders will be entertained by Origins, but more than anything else, he wants them to understand how extraordinary those early M\u0101ori ancestors were.\u00a0In episode two, the Origins team travelled to R\u0113kohu Chatham Islands, where a recent storm had washed out pieces of a historic buried waka. \u201cThe local Moriori recited their whakapapa and said this is our oral tradition that supports this being the Moriori waka that arrived,\u201d he recalls. Carbon dating on the waka supported the accuracy of that oral history, passed down from generation to generation across many centuries. \u201cThey said, \u2018yep, it\u2019s exactly the date, they sync up\u2019. It all synergises together.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n As Origins prepares to delve into our fascinating past, cartwheel fans can be assured that Morrison intends to continue his unpredictable Te Karere signoffs<\/a> long into the future. While he won\u2019t perform a trick at the end of every bulletin (\u201cif we do it every day, the people will expect it\u201d), Morrison confirms he\u2019s taking requests. \u201cThe camera people are bringing in props \u2013 wigs and balls and all sorts of stuff,\u201d he laughs. But even he draws the line at a handstand \u2013 that\u2019s too dangerous for live television.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to be that fella,\u201d he says. \u201cI tried to do a backspin the other day, and it was horrendous.\u201d<\/p>\n Origins returns to TVNZ1 on February 3 at 7.30pm and streams on TVNZ+.<\/p>\nPhoto: TVNZ<\/p>\n
Morrison at R\u0113kohu (Photo: TVNZ)<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a goal<\/p>\n