Claudia Pond Eyley - Helen Clark: Inside Stories

Claudia Pond Eyley is a visual artist and film maker. She studied at Elam and has lectured at the University of Auckland. She is the author, with Robin White, of 28 Days in Kiribati (New Womens Press, 1987) and Protest at Moruroa (Tandem Press, 2006) and her documentaries include Departure and Return: The Final Journey of the Rainbow Warrior.

Dan Salmon is a multi-award-winning director and producer of documentary (Made in Taiwan, Here to Stay) and drama (Licked, The Day Morris Left). His documentaries have screened on TVNZ, ABC, Al Jazeera and EBS in Korea, and at festivals in Tahiti, Canada and the United States. Pond Eyley and Salmons documentary Helen, for which the interviews for this book were made, was screened on television in August 2013 and December 2014, as well as at the 2014 Documentary Edge Film Festival.

Claudia Pond Eyley and Dan Salmon

In memory of Margaret Helen Clark
(3 September 192417August 2011)

In 1999 Helen Clark became New Zealands first elected woman prime minister. Her nine years in power were a roller-coaster ride of public affection and hostility. After political defeat in the 2008 election, she left the country to become the most powerful woman at the United Nations, leading their development programme. Forbes magazine continues to rank her among the most influential women in the world.

During 2012 and 2013 we interviewed family and friends, colleagues and rivals, teachers and mentors, journalists and commentators to produce a major documentary about Helen Clarks life. The limited running time meant that the bulk of those wonderful, insightful memories of Helen Clark were left on the cutting-room floor. They did not belong there. They were stories that clamoured to be heard, told by the people who were there, the insiders, in their own words, giving us fresh insight into the life of Helen Clark, prime minister, and Helen Clark, daughter, sister, wife, friend and colleague.

Helen Clark: Inside Stories begins with her childhood in rural Waikato, her years boarding at Epsom Girls Grammar School and cutting her political teeth at university. The early stories are set against the political movements and activism of the 1960s and 70s and explore the influences and challenges that shaped her political outlook and her experiences during the Vietnam War, Springbok Tour, womens liberation movement, anti-nuclear movement and the liberalisation of our society. The book follows Helen Clarks journey from protestor to politician, from backbench MP to prime minister. Finally, from her office in New York City she offers insight into her life and responsibilities as the head of the United Nations Development Program with a budget the size of the GDP of a small country and staff and offices all over the world.

In her time in politics, Helen Clark engineered coups and had them engineered against her. She bore the brunt of sexism, and of homophobic abuse, in spite of being married to her husband Peter Davis since 1981. She contended with the Foreshore and Seabed hikoi and annual protests at Waitangi. She oversaw the decriminalisation of prostitution and a clamp down on child violence. She worked to promote New Zealand business while publicly clashing with the Business Roundtable. She sent troops to Afghanistan with United Nations sanction, while managing to keep New Zealand out of the Iraq War without upsetting the United States.

New Zealand carries the stamp of Helen Clark. Without her vision, her nationalism, her achievements and even her mistakes, our country would be different. It was a privilege to hear stories about her life from all sides of the political divide stories that offer a unique perspective on a politician who helped create the New Zealand society and culture we know today. We hope that the book will give readers access to a deeper understanding not just of Helen Clark but of New Zealand as a nation.

We are grateful for the generosity of all the interviewees and the access to memorabilia and photographic material that make Helen Clark: Inside Stories such a rich resource. Our thanks to Sue Woodfield from MediaWorks who championed the documentary the source of the interviews that are the heart of this publication and to TV3 and New Zealand on Air for financing it. And it is with warm thanks to the Clark family that we dedicate this book to the memory of Helens mother, Margaret Helen Clark.

Claudia Pond Eyley and Dan Salmon, May 2015