Who Do You Think You Are?: July 15

Next week on the excellent Who Do You Think You Are?, the big names keep coming, as Rebecca Gibney heads back to New Zealand where she experiences a moving ceremony with local Maoris.

“I was raised in quite a dysfunctional family. We’ve always felt like there has been a spirit of rejection, I guess, hanging over our family. We’ve always felt this kind of sense of abandonment. To now know this is something that has come down from the generations, it makes sense.” – Rebecca Gibney

Actress and Gold Logie winner, Rebecca Gibney has a smile which lights up lounge rooms across Australia but her warm nature is in contrast to the traumas that have beset her family over generations.

Rebecca bravely decides to investigate her past in “Who Do You Think You Are?” 7:30pm Tuesday 15 July on SBS ONE.

Travelling to New Zealand, the place of her birth, Rebecca wants to discover what she can about her mother’s family.

First she explores the life of her Great Great Grandfather, James Way Jnr, who had a tragic upbringing, having lost his mother and two siblings in quick succession. Rebecca is happy to learn James Jnr succeeded in finding a more stable family life, having married and fathered an incredible sixteen children. But then he became involved in an infamous chapter of New Zealand history. James Way’s military service saw him sent to invade the peaceful Maori settlement of Parihaka in Taranaki

Rebecca travels to Parihaka – to be part of a history making moment – the first ancestor of the militia to be afforded an official Maori welcome. On learning that despite the Maori’s staging a campaign of non-violent resistance to European occupation, the militia ransacked the settlement. Rebecca apologises for her ancestor’s role and in a highly moving reconciliation ceremony she offers up a tearful rendition of Amazing Grace as a way of thanking the community for the warmth and friendship they have offered her.

7:30pm Tuesday on SBS ONE.