Once Were Warriors

*Spoiler Alert*

I would like to start off by saying that this was a good, but pretty depressing movie.  The movie takes place in what looks like the slums of New Zealand.  The area seems to only be filled with the native people, which makes me think  that segregation was still rampant in New Zealand during the 1990's.  Back in the old tribe the mother was "the chosen one" but the tribal elders did not approve of her marring a man from a long generation of slaves.  They left the tribe to join modern society and poverty. 
Even though the family is dirt poor there are late night parties every night where their friends eat basically all their food.  When the mother refuses to make more food for the husbands best friend she gets maliciously beaten and then raped by the husband.  The eldest son is off joining a gang and the middle son has been taken away by social services.  One of the husbands friends rapes the 13 year old daughter during one of the loud parties, she later cant take the violence surrounding her and commits suicide.  At the funeral the girls journal is read and the husband beats the life out of his once friend, but it is too late and the wife decides to leave him and takes the children back to the tribe.

In the beginning the living conditions reminded me of the ghettos you would expect to see in troubled areas in America:  The family all depending on the terribly paying jobs the father can get.  Violence at every corner.
But at the end of the movie I was wondering why the natives would ever want to join modern society.  I seemed like tribal life was much more tranquil and honorable.  In society everyone seems to be slaves to violence, booze, and poverty.