Elizabeth Anne Hakaraia is a New Zealand film producer, director, and author.
Hakaraia was raised in Lower Hutt and started her broadcasting career at Radio Waikato when she was 17 years old. When she was 20, she moved to Radio Aotearoa and later to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. After some time living and working in Europe she returned to New Zealand and worked on National RadioâÂÂs MÃÂori magazine show Whenua.
In the later 1990s Hakaraia began researching, producing, writing and directing documentaries and television series. In 2004 she founded her own production company, Blue Bach Productions.
In 2014 Hakaraia established the MÃÂoriland Film Festival; two years later the MÃÂoriland Charitable Trust opened a cinema and arts space which Hakaraia manages.
Hakaraia has been a jury member at ImagineNATIVE, the worldâÂÂs largest indigenous film festival, and an executive member of Screen Production and Development Association and NgàAho Whakaari.
In the early 2000s Hakaraia wrote a book for adult readers and another for children about Matariki, a MÃÂori celebration of the new year.
In the 2022 Queen's Birthday Honours, Hakaraia was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the film and media industries.
Hakaraia's iwi are NgÃÂti Kapumanawawhiti, NgÃÂti Raukawa, NgÃÂti Toa Rangatira and Te ÃÂti Awa. Her partner is film producer Tainui Stevens.