Bodie Wheke Taylor
It’s been a quarter of a century since Bodie Wheke Taylor was picked to appear before millions of Star Wars fans as a clone trooper.
Bodie Wheke Taylor played a young clone of Bounty Hunter Jango Fett in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones.
But on Friday Taylor, who played a room full of clone troopers spawned by bounty hunter Jango Fett in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, picked an audience of three to share his passion for Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari.
Taylor is the brains behind the ecological island’s new Moa Hunter tour – a two-hour experience designed to unpack the cultural significance of the mountain.
Taylor has created a moa hunter code which he unpacks on the tour, the first value being respect the teacher and teachings. Participants are taught stealth walking, and other skills. Listening to the furthest sound of nature is encouraged as a daily practice.
“I am just wanting leave a legacy for mana whenua on the mountain,” Taylor said.
Taylor, who says he can whakapapa 35 generations to an ancestor who arrived in Aotearoa in 1350, was inspired to create the tour by the extinction of the moa.
“Lest we lose the treasure of the natural world, like the extinction of the moa,” he said quoting a Māori proverb.
When Taylor’s ancestors arrived, Aotearoa was covered in thick bush, and the only tracks were those carved by the giant birds.
“The mana of that bird was so big,” he said.
The tracks became trodden by Māori and, as more people arrived, many became roads.
Taylor laments the hunting of the bird to extinction.
Māori ate their flesh, used feathers and skin for clothing and bones for fish hooks and pendants.
Taylor is acutely aware of humankind’s impact on Aotearoa’s natural world, quoting Samuel Marsden, who established the first Christian mission in New Zealand, in 1814.
“The singing of the birds in the morning and evening is truly delightful,” Marsden wrote. “I have never heard anything like it. It is not only melodious but so loud that it is almost deafening.”
Birdsong is no longer deafening thanks to introduced mammals, but Taylor celebrates the rising volume of birdsong as it slowly returns to the mountain thanks to the predator proof fence.
So is the streamside para taniwha plant.
“Thirty years ago, you would not have seen this, but it is returning thanks to the fence,” he said.
The fence costs $5000 a day to maintain.
“It would be lovely to think that in 1000 years’ time it will be no longer needed,” he said.
Taylor grew up and was schooled in Hamilton but calls a number of Waikato marae home.
He is part Ngatai Tara Tokanui Te Whaka, on his mother’s side, and Ngatai Haua on his father’s side.
While Taylor was appearing in the stage production Ahorangi 2000 in Hamilton, actor Temuera Morrison coupled with a casting director from Lucasfilm approached him to play a younger version of Morrison’s character in the film.
“I was on the plane to San Francisco, for two weeks,” Taylor said.
Taylor said Morrison, who filmed his scenes in Australia, was jealous Taylor got to work at Skywalker Ranch.
“I have only got a seven second scene,” Taylor said. “For some reason it’s a big deal.”
To his workmates, Taylor is affectionately known as Bodie Fett in homage of the character he played.
Taylor travelled the world after the film, marrying his wife Te Aroha after a chance meeting in London.
Bodie Wheke Taylor unpacks the cultural significance of Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari on the first moa tour. Photo: Chris Gardner
