Introduced by one of the production team

Professor Judy Bennett

Department of History, University of Otago

"Children of War" is based on research conducted in 2010-2012 on the lives of children of US servicemen of WWII and indigenous women in the South Pacific. It addresses three cases studies--one from Cook Islands, one from Samoa and one from New Zealand (Maori). It traces the search by children for their fathers, and the re-unification with their US siblings. One focuses on wartime American Samoa and the battle of an American sailor to be with his family in the face of regulations forbidding all marriages between US servicemen and Pacific Island women.  This film was funded by the University of Otago, Dunedin and the New Zealand Marsden Fund, and will be shown on Maori TV in New Zealand on Anzac day this year in a slightly shorter format. 

The Marsden funded research was led by Judith Bennett with Angela Wanhalla, Jacqui Leckie, Alumita Durutalo, Louise Mataia, Rosey Anderson, Marsa Dodson, and Kathryn Creely all contributing. At the moment, a book manuscript detailing the findings is under consideration by a leading press.