NEW ZEALAND’S IDENTITY COMPLEX: A CRITIQUE OF CULTURAL PRACTICES AT THE MUSEUM OF NEW ZEALAND TE PAPA TONGAREWA Paul Harvey Williams Submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy February 2003 Faculty of Arts The University of Melbourne Produced on acid-free paper iii DECLARATION This is to certify that (i) the thesis comprises only my own work, (ii) due acknowledgement has been made in the text to other material used, (iii) the thesis is less than 100 000 words in length, exclusive of figures, bibliographies, appendices and footnotes. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I have received tremendous support from many people and institutions whilst completing this dissertation. I have worked most closely with my supervisor, Chris Healy, who has inspired with his intellectual rigor and become an encouraging friend. Additional staff at the Cultural Studies department of the University of Melbourne who have helped include Anne Maxwell, David Bennett, Audrey Yue, Ken Gelder, and Annamarie Jagose. I have also benefited from Brian Morris’ ideas and good humour, and his kindness in provided me with a place to stay in the difficult final stages. I received reliable support from staff at several libraries, including the Ballieu and ERC Libraries at the University of Melbourne, the State Library of Victoria, Australia’s National Library in Canberra, New Zealand’s National Library in Wellington, and the Te Aka Matua Library and National Services at Te Papa. I received help and information from staff at Te Papa, in particular Arapata Hakiwai, Cath Nesus, and Joe Doherty. I learned a great deal at the ANU Visiting Scholars program, and found extended conversations with Paul Tapsell and Ben Dibley especially useful. Michael Volkerling at Victoria University generously gave up his time to share key insights into the policy background of the museum. Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett from New York University kindly set aside time to meet with me and share her unique perspectives on museum practices. Denis and Margit Dutton have remained interested, supportive and compassionate. Key conversations, with Denis in particular, persuaded me that I had a topic that it was important to pursue. They have also become warm friends over the past four years. v I would like to thank all of my friends, who have provided wonderful respite from my research. Finally, I want to thank my family and my wonderful lover Sonia, who have endured the most, loved the most, and without whom I could not have completed this. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract i Declaration iii Acknowledgements iv Table of Contents vi List of Illustrations vii Chapter One. Making a Spectacle of Ourselves: An Introduction to the New Museum 1 Chapter Two. Making Heritage Popular: Te Papa’s New Deal 42 Chapter Three. Producing Communities in Difference: Bicultural Histories 122 Chapter Four. The Museum as Bicultural Forum: Te Papa’s Negotiation of Lore and Law 202 Chapter Five. Bringing it All Together: Te Papa – A Successful Assemblage 287 Works Cited 310 Glossary 354 vii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1. Te Papa, from Circular Quay 2 Figure 2: Te Papa floor plan, level 2 40 Figure 3: Te Papa floor plan, level 4 41 Figure 4: View of Te Papa entrance from terrace 57 Figure 5: Te Marae 71 Figure 6: TimeWarp area, featuring ‘Blastback’ & ‘Future Rush’ 103 Figure 7: Interior of Golden Days 105 Figure 8: Swing bridge in Bush City 123 Figure 9. Te Hau ki Turanga 143 Figure 10. Detail of Mountains to the Sea 151 Figure 11. Detail of On the Sheep’s Back 171 Figure 12: Treaty facsimile from Signs of a Nation 247 1 Chapter One Making a Spectacle of Ourselves: An Introduction to the New Museum 2 1. Day One: Anticipating the New Museum Figure 1. Te Papa, from Circular Quay. Picture courtesy of Te Papa On Valentine’s Day, February 14 1998, the Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa (hereafter known by its brand name, Te Papa) opened its doors for its first day of business. Having been promised the romance of a ‘new deal’ with its national museum, and after nearly a decade and a half in the planning, public anticipation was high. Te Papa is one of the world’s largest museum project in recent years, and the most significant project in New Zealand’s cultural sector for decades. ‘Day One’ celebrations encapsulated much of what lay in store. For the 30 000 who gathered on the museum’s wide waterfront terrace (participants in a so-called ‘queuing festival’), it would have been quite apparent that Te Papa intended a radically different experience from its predecessor, from other New Zealand museums, and from any other museum in the world. New Zealand has some 500 registered museums including major regional museums in Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin. Generally reflecting the colonial heritage of local areas, New Zealand’s museums typically display examples of Maori art and culture, colonial voyages and shipwrecks, and settler history (chiefly labour histories related to the timber, mining and farming industries). They collect and classify the natural environment (particularly birds, marine life, molluscs and insects), and also often feature war shrines and memorials. Though it was anticipated that aspects of these topics would 3 exist in the new museum, pre-opening publicity fostered an expectation that they would be conceptualised and presented in exciting and novel ways. Crowds waited to elbow their course through the new building’s five levels, twenty-one exhibitions and four ‘discovery centres’, set on a site New Zealand Geographic approximated as (in national parlance) ‘the equivalent size of three rugby fields’.1 Visitors were marshalled into lines marked by hay bales, providing rustic seating that brought a whiff of the nation’s farming roots to the capital city. The opening ceremony was scrupulous in its cultural diversity. The array of performers that entertained the crowd included Pacific Island dancers, a gospel choir, buskers, a Maori-pop hybrid music group, and an opera singer. Following official speeches from Pakeha and Maori (in English and Maori), Howard Morrison, New Zealand’s best-known Maori entertainer, sang the national anthem. Later, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra performed the Te Papa Suite, a specially commissioned fanfare composed by a young Wellingtonian. The first official visitors through the front doors were children, a Maori boy and a Pakeha girl, who crossed the threshold of the nation’s new cultural frontier holding the hands of Sir Peter Blake, the helmsman of New Zealand’s yachting successes. Then-Prime Minister Jenny Shipley hailed the museum as symbolising ‘the unique mosaic of culture that is New Zealand’.2 In sum, visitors witnessed a carefully orchestrated display of cultural complementarity that evenly favoured Maori and Pakeha, male and female, young and old, city and country, high and popular culture. Several key moments that day may have prompted some misgivings, however. Day One promotion made a point of explaining to visitors waiting on hay bales that their seating was only temporary; the bales would soon travel south to provide feed for Marlborough farmers most affected by a drought severely affecting the east coast.3 In the face of widely publicised information that the new museum had cost $317 million of public monies, the token hay bales may have suggested a skewed allocation of Government resources. Although the Day One celebrations promoted the idea of a cosy, home-grown institution, many in the crowd would have been aware that the ‘Te Papa/Our Place’ brand and thumbprint logo alone had cost taxpayers a further $200 000.4 In the wider scheme, it 4 may have struck many as anomalous that successive Governments had proved willing to fund what is reputedly the nation’s most expensive-ever building. While over the previous decade Governments practised an unwavering commitment to privatisation and low public spending, the new museum arose on the harbour-front as a monumental statement of immoderation. After the long delays of the queue, the moment when visitors finally edged into the museum’s foyer may have disappointed. The first exhibit on view was a large, smooth 1.1 tonne granite ball supported by a column of water. Visitors, encouraged to touch the ball, found themselves tracing the engraved names of the museum’s major corporate sponsors. For most New Zealanders absent from the museum ceremonies, initial impressions arrived via a prime time TV special that evening. As viewers admired Te Marae, New Zealand’s first national marae (the customary Maori ceremonial complex that includes a meeting-house and forecourt for orators), delight may have been dampened when it was used on that first night for a live draw of the national lottery. At dawn that day, Te Marae played a pivotal part in a more reverential ceremony. On the shoreline of Wellington harbour the crews of 30 waka taua (war canoes) prepared for the arrival of Te Aurere, which, accompanied by seventeen smaller waka ama (outrigger canoes), carried tribal representatives from New Zealand and Hawaii. In a less orchestrated moment of cultural complementarity, Te Aurere was towed part of the way by the police launch Lady Elizabeth III after encountering difficulties against an outgoing tide and strong wind. Nevertheless, the moment when Te Aurere and the waka ama paused in the harbour and signalled their arrival with the sound of putatara (shell trumpet) was triumphant. A putatara responded from Te Marae and the waka taua launched from the shore to meet Te Aurere. As the large waka entered the shelter of the beach, the sound of haka powhiri (welcoming challenge) burst forth from those gathered. The crew on board Te Aurere responded with a return haka.