Cold Islanders
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Cold Islanders Moana Pasifika/Oceania identified artists creating and occupying respectful stances of strength and confidence in Aotearoa Olga H J Wilson A thesis submitted to Auckland University of Technology in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy (MPhil) Te Ara Poutama Auckland University of Technology 2020 Chief Supervisor: Emeritus Professor Ngahuia Te Awekotuku Secondary Supervisor: Professor Waimarie Linda Nikora 1 Lotu - Karakia Creator God May those needing to find safe waters be comforted by the words that spring from your Source. In the deep dark waters may they find you And in the ninth heavens may they find you And in primordial time and space May they find themselves. Three Oceans around the Vā, Te Whenua and Le Fanua Guide us to a spacious place upon which to stand. 2 Table of Contents Karakia……………………………………………………………………………………….………..2 Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………….…….…6 List of Figures …………………………………………………………………………………………7 List of Tables……………………………………………………………………………………….…..9 List of Appendices.……………………………………………………………….…………………..10 List of Abbreviations, Terminologies…………………………………………….……………….......11 Glossary…………………………………………………………………………………………….…12 Attestation of Authorship………………………………………………………………………..........15 Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………………………...16 Chapter 1: Introduction ………………………………………………………………………..…...18 Research Purpose …………………………………………………………………………………......18 Research Questions…………………………………………………………………………………...19 Looking Back to Move Forward………………………………………………………………….......19 Structure of Thesis: Chapter Synopses …………………………………………………………….....20 Summary………………………………………………………………………………………….…...21 Chapter 2: The Formation of The Cold Islands……………………………………………….......22 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………...22 Incoming: Generations ‘Tofua And Matua’…………………………………………………………..23 Waking Up Cold ……………………………………………………………………………………...23 Recontextualising on Māori Land…………………………………………………………………….27 Warm Islanders Communing………………………………………………………………………....28 Kura - School: Another Shaper………………………………………………………..……………...34 Political Shaping……………………………………………………………………………………,,.38 Parallel Islands: Generation Windrush……………………………………………………………..,,.42 Summary and Analysis Observations of First-Generation Immigrant Parents’……………………..,,45 The Pathology of a Cold Islander: Olga Hedwig Janice Taufau Leafa Krause…………………….,,..48 Chapter 3: Literature Review……………………………………………………………………....51 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………….......51 Habitus…………………………………………………......................................................................52 Parallel Narratives: The Cold Islanders and the Cold Islanders of England………………………….53 Culture of Whispers…………………………………………………………………………………..56 Nainai…………………………………………………………………………………………………56 3 Social Structure…………………………………………………………………………………….....57 Chapter 4: Research Method, Methodology, and Research Design……………………………...58 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………...58 Hybridised Methodological Approach………………………………………………………………..58 Research Design………………………………………………………………………………………59 Method………………………………………………………………………………………………...61 Chapter 5: Findings…………………………………………………………………………….........64 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………...64 Critical Praxes: Two Pioneering Cold Islands Artists………………………………………….....64 Professor Robert Jahnke…………………………………………………………………………........65 Lily Aitui Laita………………………………………………………………………………………..67 The Lei/Lay of Aotearoa’s Pasifika Art Ocean over 25 Years………………………………........69 ‘Mashing it Up’ in England……………………………………………………………………........73 Proposing Four Artistic HabitusTypes………………………………………………………………..78 The Four Approaches and Their Oars………………………………………………………………...79 Quiet…………………………………………………………………………………………….…….80 Natasha Matila- Smith………………………………………………………………………………...80 Summary……………………………………………………………………………………….……...85 Interpreting………………………………………………………………………………….…….....86 Dylan Lind…………………………………………………………………………………….……... 86 Summary…………………………………………………………………………………….…….…..90 Seeking…………………………………………………………………………………….………….92 Telly Tuita………………………………………………………………………………………….....92 Summary………………………………………………………………………………………...........97 Seeking/Transgressing……………………………………………………………………….….......98 Ahilapalapa Rands………………………………………………………………………………….....98 Summary…………………………………………………………………………………………......100 Transgressing……………………………………………………………………………………….103 Angela Tiatia………………………………………………………………………………………...103 Summary…………………………………………………………………………………………......109 A Cold Islander of England………………………………………………………………………..110 Jade Montserrat……………………………………………………………………………………...110 Summary…………………………………………………………………………………………......115 Chapter 6: Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………......116 4 Indigeneity with Respect to Tangata Whenua……………………………………………………….116 No ‘One Way’ Systems in the Moana……………………………………………………………….116 References……...…………………………………………………………………………………...119 Personal Communications………………………………………………………………………....124 Appendices………………………………………………………………………………………….125 Appendix 1. Ethical approval………………………………………………………...…...................125 Appendix 2. Participant information sheet…………………………………………………………..126 Appendix 3. Consent form…………………………………………………………………………..128 Appendix 4. Exhibition poster for related exhibition…………………………………………….….129 Appendix 5. Draft catalogue……………............................................................................................130 5 Abstract People of the Moana/Pacific/Oceanic diaspora living in Aotearoa New Zealand experience the uniqueness of belonging in a genealogical sense to Māori through the first Pacific migration about 800 years ago, while simultaneously holding the status of ‘tauiwi’ or non-indigenous. These children and next generations are distanced from the day-to-day nuances of being an ‘islander’ in their ancestral homes. This research considers how this geographical shift has separated first and second generations of children of the Pacific/Oceanic diaspora from those who remain indigenous in their Pacific homelands. This shift has naturally diminished contact with ‘home’ and all the things that ‘home’ could potentially mean. Successive generations of the diaspora have had little choice but to assimilate or attempt to guess at, or use inventive essentialist strategies, to try to feel more at home in their own bodies. For those raised by Islands-born parents, there remains evidence of cultural legacy upon which to build, and cultural distance issues are therefore less pronounced. However, for many others who learned the ways of Aotearoa Pākehā, and engaged with Māoritanga, a sense of cultural insecurity lingers through an unconscious distancing from perceived ‘islandness’. To date, I have not found language sufficient enough to articulate this phenomenon of feeling cultural unease effectively. I have coined a phrase which has assisted a move toward a more efficient and accessible vocabulary with which to describe a physical and metaphysical state: The Cold Islanders (henceforth written as CIs). It is not a term that necessitates any uptake by future readers, but one which states succinctly the way I feel in this world. Not born in the nurturing heat of our island homes, but in a place that experiences frost and snow; to be cold in the sense that to be ‘left out in the cold’ is to feel a sense of exclusion. To be a CI is to contend with self-hood continually and piecing bits of cultures that belong partially to one’s parents and grandparents, or also to European Aotearoa/New Zealand. I have designed a culturally safe navigational approach toward respectful ways that CIs can claim their indigeneity with confidence. I hope it assists in ensuring we are not intruding-upon or re- colonising Māori. A respectful space can occur for CIs in their making of art. My theory endeavours to establish that diasporic dislocation in one’s place of birth creates a new kind of Pasifika/Oceanic person. One, who is unable to be bound to their ancestral home, nor to their current one: that is, that there is physical and socially normative distance between us here in Aotearoa and the island homelands. And, that in fact, this time-space overlap occurs within their bodies, thus supporting my notions of the metaphysical space which I call the Cold Islands. I propose that the Cold Islanders’ bodies’ and art practice construct their Tūrangawaewae, their own indigenous metaphysical place to stand, manifesting in the Vā, where they claim, celebrate, and inhabit all of these disparate lands at once. 6 List of Figures Figure 1. TSMV Tofua, passenger ship. Photograph: Collection of Reuben Goossens…...................23 Figure 2. The TSMV Matua – passenger ship Photograph: Collection of Reuben Goossens..............23 Figure 3. Passport photograph of Etevise Nikolao Tupuola, 1961, Courtesy of E. Krause ................28 Figure 4. Passenger list for TMSV Matua, 1961 New Zealand, Archives New Zealand, Passenger Lists, 1839-1973." Database with images. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : 21 October 2020. Archives New Zealand, Wellington……………………………………………………………..……29 Figure 5. Charles Krause, 1961 – Collection of the Krause family………………………………….30 Figure 6. TMSV Tofua passenger list 1959 New Zealand, Archives New Zealand, Passenger Lists, 1839-1973." Database with images. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : 21 October 2020. Archives New Zealand, Wellington…………………………………………………………………..31 Figure 7. Newspaper article – Sāmoan Catholic Society, St. Pius X, Tokoroa. Courtesy of Tokoroa History Page, Facebook. ©Frank Potroz………………………………………………………….…..33