Encountering the Other: Katherine Mansfield’s Representation of Maori People
Erika Otani
Introduction Katherine Mansfield, who was born in Wellington, New Zealand, is now generally regarded as one of the greatest modernist writers. Her mature works such as “The Garden-Party” and “At the Bay” set in Wellington have been highly praised for their innovative literary style. It is often said that the time of her apprenticeship was over when she completed “Prelude.” Her works prior to “Prelude” have often been viewed just as the immature works of her apprenticeship or a marginal part of her oeuvre. However, some of the works of her apprenticeship were also located in colonial New Zealand, and her early colonial stories such as “The Woman at the Store,” “Millie,” “Ole Underwood” and “How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped” have recently begun to receive more critical attention and be examined from new perspectives (e.g. feminism and colonialism/post-colonialism). Even though Mansfield’s mature stories did not feature the Maori as the theme, the Maori sometimes appeared in her early stories. One of these stories is her 1910 short story, “How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped,” which appeared in Rhythm in 1912. In “How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped,” the protagonist, Pearl Button, encounters the cultural and ethnic Other – the Maori – and is emancipated by them. However, at the end of the story, the arrival of “little men in blue coats” suggests that they carry her back to her home (523) and her freedom and happiness will be confined again. It is clear that Maori people are portrayed in a positive light, and Mansfield criticizes Pakeha (i.e., white) settler society’s values and lives in this story. It is often pointed out that Maori people are associated with freedom and happiness, while Pakeha with regimentation
南半球評論 6 2017 and dullness. In addition to this common interpretation, some critics have interpreted this story from different perspectives. For example, Pamela Dunbar points out that Mansfield portrays a child’s alienation from her family and the social position of the Maori in this story (43). Lydia Wevers suggests that Mansfield subverts the convention and structure of the colonial romance about a child who is kidnapped by indigenous people (259). However, little attention has been paid to the fact that Mansfield more or less shared the common presumption that Maori people were dying out, and she did not completely rebel against racial bias. Especially, we can find Mansfield’s ambivalent attitude toward the Maori in The Urewera Notebook (2015), which was transcribed from Mansfield’s account of her 1907 journey into the Ureweras, the North Island of New Zealand, by Anna Plumridge.1 Ian A. Gordon suggests that Mansfield used this travel experience in the Urewera district to write “How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped” (28-29). Anna Plumridge and Anne Maxwell examine the “Urewera Notebook” in detail, referring to the Urewera district’s colonial history and provide us thought-provoking analyses in terms of Mansfield’s representation of the Maori. However, these two studies did not touch on research of Mansfield’s short stories. If we read Mansfield’s short stories and The Urewera Notebook together, we will clearly understand her relationship with Maori culture and her ambivalent attitude to Maori people. This paper aims to reveal Mansfield’s ambivalent representation of the Maori, by particularly examining what travel experiences she drew on or concealed to create “How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped.” This paper first analyzes “How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped,” focusing on how Pearl Button departs from Western convention through encountering Maori people. Second, it considers Mansfield’s ambivalent outlook on the Maori by analyzing The Urewera Notebook. Finally, it reveals how Mansfield created “How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped,” and her ambivalent descriptions of Maori people in this story are also discussed.
1. Pearl Button and the Other In the opening scene of “How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped,” Pearl plays
2017 7 南半球評論 outside alone. When she swings on “the little gate in front of the House of Boxes” (519), two big dark skinned women appear. Two big women came walking down the street. One was dressed in red and the other was dressed in yellow and green. They had pink handkerchiefs over their heads, and both of them carried a big flax basket of ferns. They had no shoes and stockings on, and they came walking along, slowly, because they were so fat, and talking to each other and always smiling. (519) What the passage makes clear at once is that the two women are described as primitive people, and “always smiling” suggests they are happy. Though this story does not disclose these big women’s race and ethnicity, their appearance and personal belongings lead us to realize they are Maori people. Even though these Maori women are frightened of “the House of Boxes,” they ask Pearl where her mother is. Pearl answers, “In the kitching, ironing- because-its-Tuesday” (520). The phrase “the House of Boxes” is related to the image of confinement. In this confined space, Pearl’s mother is busy with ironing which symbolizes a typical woman’s role in a patriarchal society. As one of the dark women whispers, “We got beautiful things to show you” (520), Pearl decides to get down from the gate and accept their invitation to join them. It implies that Pearl moves from the safe social structure where she belongs. The two women take Pearl to a log house where other dark people welcome her. Other Maori men and women, who also look very happy, do not seem to be engaged in any work. They play with Pearl. When Maori people sit on the dusty floor, Pearl carefully “pull[s] up her pinafore and dress and [sits] on her petticoat” (521) because this is the custom she has been taught to use for sitting in dusty places. She eats a great big peach, “the juice running all down her front” (521). Though she is frightened because she spills the juice, a Maori woman says, “That doesn’t matter at all” (521). Even though Pearl gradually enjoys new values, Pearl still obeys her convention at this point. However, the fact that Pearl spills the peach juice suggests that she symbolically transgresses the boundary between the civilized Pakeha world and the primitive Maori world. After that, Maori people and Pearl go to the sea by carts. As they travel
南半球評論 8 2017 towards the sea, Pearl sits on “the lap of one of her women” (521) and feels a happiness. The word, “her women” suggests the two Maori women are no longer strangers to her. The woman was warm as a cat, and she moved up and down when she breathed, just like purring. Pearl played with a green ornament round her neck, and the woman took the little hand and kissed each of her fingers and then turned it over and kissed the dimples. Pearl had never been happy like this before. (521-22) Since the warmth of the Maori woman’s body is compared to a cat, she is perceived in the image of an animal. We clearly notice that physical contacts like kissing and touching make Pearl happy. What is more, the Maori woman takes off Pearl’s “shoes and stockings, her pinafore and dress” (522) at the house around the sea. Taking off her pinafore and dress means that she removes the customs that she has acquired from established and civilized society. Though Pearl is scared when she sees the sea for the first time, she finally loves the unfamiliar element of the sea. The fact that she rushes over to give one of the Maori women a hug and a kiss shows her excitement. Pearl completely identifies with the Maori tribe. However, her happiness and excitement end at the arrival of little blue men. At first, Pearl has a conventional attitude toward Maori people. However, as she is influenced by the values of the Maori, she questions the values of the established society where white settlers belong. “Haven’t you got any Houses of Boxes?” she [Pearl] said. “Don’t you all live in a row? Don’t the men go to offices? Aren’t there any nasty things?” (522) Through encountering the primitive Other, Pearl questions the white people’s world that is related to an orderly society, a restrictive and regulated life, and a gender role. In this story, Pearl’s father never appears, but Pearl’s questions imply that her father works outside the home as breadwinner. Pearl also thinks that Maori people’s lives are free of nasty things. Maori people are closely associated with freedom and the sea. Mansfield represents Maori people as fat, exotic, rough, and primitive people. As Kate Fullbrook points out, “The
2017 9 南半球評論 world of the ‘dark people’, who are also the ‘people’ of the unconscious, is kind, vivid, open to pleasure, unregulated in the relations between the sexes” (43), it seems reasonable to suppose that through encountering the cultural and ethnic Other – the Maori –Pearl finds not only new values of life but also her repressed sexual desire.
2. Katherine Mansfield and the Other In 1907, Mansfield joined a camping party to travel through a remote and heavily forested part of the North Island of New Zealand. They visited the Urewera area inhabited by the Tuhoe people, one of the Maori tribes. Michael King refers to the Urewera as “the last Maori district to be ‘penetrated’ by Europeans and European influences” (249). Europeans regarded the Tuhoe as “a fierce, untamed race” (Plumridge 7). In this expedition, Mansfield and her tour group also visited other areas like Taupo and Rotorua. Before she joined this trip, apart from Maata Mahupuku,2 her experience of engaging in Maori culture was very limited. However, this trip enables Mansfield to encounter a “real” Maori community, and experience “real” Maori culture. In this section, we will examine Mansfield’s ambivalent outlook on the Maori by analyzing The Urewera Notebook. As Plumridge and Maxwell have already suggested, Mansfield prefers pure and primitive Maori to westernized Maori, like many other Western writers who seek “authenticity.” Let us consider the following quotation. Here, too, I meet Prodgers it is splendid to see once again – real English people – I am so tired & sick of the third rate article – Give me the Maori and the tourist – but nothing between – Also this place proved utterly disappointing after Umuroa, which was fascinating in the extreme – the Maoris here know – some English and some Maori – not like the other natives – Also these people dress in almost English clothes compared with the natives here – and they wear a great deal of ornament in Umuroa & strange hair fashions – I found nothing of interest here – (UN 2015, 97) This passage indicates that Mansfield was disillusioned by westernized Maori, and rejoiced at the sight of real British tourists. Emmanouil Aretoulakis
南半球評論 10 2017 explains the reason why Mansfield liked the Maori and British tourists is that “they both had roots, a cultural background, and a complete sense of the natural trajectory of human existence, from life to death” (49). It shows Mansfield’s idea concerning the Maori and British tourists at this time. However, Mansfield wrote this comment before she visited Rotorua, a famous thermal district with a thriving tourist industry, where Maori people had been involved in tourist industries. Her preference for tourists was gradually shifting through this journey. When her party visited Rotorua, Mansfield wrote to her mother that she did not like tourists. I confess, frankly that I hate going trips with a party of tourists – they spoil half my pleasure – don’t they yours? You know one lady who is the wit of the day and is ‘flirty’, and the inevitable old man who becomes disgusted with everything, and the honey moon couples – Rotorua is a happy hunting ground for these – (101) Even though Mansfield did not write down tourists’ nationalities, this passage reveals her attitude that she differentiated herself from other vulgar tourists who do not seek “authenticity” but enjoy superficial tourist attractions. Her attitudes of disdaining a popular tourist destination like Rotorua and seeking an unspoiled tourist spot, are related to her preference for non-westernized Maori. However, she was also fascinated by the fusion and hybridization of European and Maori cultures. This is shown by the fact that when Mansfield’s party set up camp near Albert Warbrick’s house, Mansfield was fascinated by his niece, Joanna, who carried a mixture of European and Maori blood. Albert Warbrick was of European and Maori descent. His brother, Alfred Warbrick was a guide on this Urewera camping trip. Mansfield was interested in Johanna’s life. . . . I see the niece Johanna – watering her garden with a white enamel teapot – She is a fat wellmade child in a blue pinafore – her hair plaited & most strange eyes. Then she milks the cows. . . . She dines with us – teaches me Maori & smokes a cigaret Johanna is rather silent – reads Byron & Shakespeare & wants to go back to school – W teaches her fancy work. At night we go & see her – the clean place – the pictures – the beds – Byron & the candle – the flowers in a glass
2017 11 南半球評論 –sweet – the paper & pens – photos of Maoris & whites. . . . I got a Maori kit. [?WW] thinks the old people at Umuroa so dirty – yes – Would I like to sleep there? Hot water – Home in the dark – Johanna more silent – there is something sad about it – all – she is so lovely. (98) Here, we notice that Mansfield recorded Johanna’s home and life which represent a fusion of Western and Maori cultures. As for Johanna’s life, reading Byron and Shakespeare represents European culture. Watering her garden and milking cows mean that she had to help her family in an unpaid capacity. Plumridge interprets the sentence “there is something sad about it” as follows: “Mansfield responds with insight to the shy orphan who straddles two cultures, and whose intelligence and aspirations to European ‘high culture’ surpass her socio-economic means. . .” (Plumridge 13). In addition to this interpretation, I should suggest that Mansfield might identify with Johanna’s circumstances. This is because Mansfield also had multiple identities. Aretoulakis argues Mansfield’s sense of belonging and not belonging as follows: “[I]t is Mansfield herself who occupies an in-between space insofar as she is neither a tourist from the metropolis nor a Maori (although it turns out she is related to one); neither psychologically integrated into the white settler society nor completely alienated from it” (49-50). Even though Mansfield identified with Johanna, she was not successfully able to share her feelings with silent Johanna. This might lead Mansfield to feel “there is something sad about it.” We can say that Mansfield’s feelings of in-between-ness and instability were reflected in the ambivalent facts that she, on the one hand, sought pure and primitive Maori, and on the other hand, she was fascinated by the fusion and hybridization of Maori and European cultures. Through this journey, Mansfield encountered many Maori people, and she sometimes recorded their occupations, such as “surveyors”3 (92) and seasonal workers who might earn cash by shearing4 (95). She also clearly realized the impact of European settlement on the Maori people. When the party set up camp near “the site of an 1866 engagement between the British forces (led by Major Fraser) and a party of Maoris” (Gordon 37), Mansfield was inspired by this site: “Visions of long dead Maoris – of forgotten battles and vanished feuds – stirred in me –” (89). What is more, while she sometimes recorded
南半球評論 12 2017 strong and beautiful Maori,5 she also noted weak and poor Maori, and “[t]he poverty of the country” (99) in her notebook. She recorded one of the small Maori boys’ clothing as follows: “the small boy is raggedly dressed in brown – his clothes are torn in many places” (96-97). Let us consider the following quotation. – opposite is a thick bark Maori fence –in the distance – across the paddock several whares clustered together like snails upon the green patch – And across the paddock a number of little boys come straggling along from the age of twelve to three – out at elbow – bare footed – indescribably dirty – but some of them almost beautiful – none of them very strong – (97-98) This description suggests Mansfield recognized poor hygiene and the Maori children’s poor health. Maxwell points out that Mansfield just recorded the Tuhoe people’s ill health she saw, without disclosing the causes of this poor condition and their resistance and their recent social problems in the notebook (229). The population of the Maori declined after contact with the Western colonists. When Captain James Cook first arrived in New Zealand in 1769, there were about 100,000 Maori people. When the British Crown and Maori signed the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, the Maori population was about between 70,000 and 90,000 (Pool “Death Rates” ). This decrease was partially due to the musket wars between 1810 and 1840. One of the main reasons of the population decline was the introduction of European diseases such as measles and tuberculosis. After the Treaty of Waitangi, the Maori population decline accelerated. This is because a great number of settlers arrived in New Zealand. The Maori people were exposed to new diseases, and they lost their ancestral territories. Especially, due to confiscation following the 1860s land wars, large numbers of Maori were dispossessed of their lands. Losing their lands led many Maori tribes to live in poor and unhealthy conditions. The Maori population reached its lowest figure (about 42,000) in 1896 (Pool “Death Rates”). Under the view of social Darwinism, Maori people were expected to die out. Maxwell summarizes Mansfield’s ambivalent attitude toward the Tuhoe as
2017 13 南半球評論 follows: . . . Mansfield’s knowledge of the Tuhoe remained fairly superficial, and that despite appearing sympathetic and admiring, she nevertheless shared the conventional Darwinist view that the Tuhoe were destined to die out. (229-30) This suggestion is very revealing in that Mansfield hardly tackled Maori people’s problems seriously though she cherished and admired the Maori through this journey. For example, in a letter to her mother, she writes: “The child wore a little red frock & a tight bonnet – such a darling thing – I wanted it for a doll” (114-15). This suggests that Mansfield regarded a Maori baby as a doll. At the end of this journey, the party visited Taupo, and Mansfield wrote a vignette based on the landscape and the lake. In this vignette, a Maori girl suddenly appears and she is described as “the very incarnation of evening” (108). Let us consider the following quotation that has been often quoted in the studies of the “Urewera Notebook” : She [a young Maori girl] sits – silent – utterly motionless – her head thrown back – All the lines of her face are passionate violent – crudely savage – but in her lifted eyes slumbers a tragic illimitable Peace – The sky changes – softens – the lake is all grey mist – the land is heavy shadow – silence broods among the trees – . . . a star wakes in the sky – She is the very incarnation of evening – and lo – the first star – shines in her eyes. (108) As many critics suggest, Mansfield idealized and romanticized the Maori here. The Maori girl in this vignette belongs to nature, and New Zealand’s landscape changes into an image of a Maori girl. Even though she witnessed various Maori lives through this journey, she used only some elements that matched her vision to create this vignette. Even though Mansfield saw her travelling companions as “ultra-Colonial” (115) and distinguished herself from them,6 she also more or less shared the common idea that Maori people were dying out in that she observed Maori people with interest and some pity as if they were endangered species.
南半球評論 14 2017 However, this journey opened her eyes to the situation of Maori people because she actively encountered Maori people and participated in their cultures. As a result, she was able to create a story, “How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped” that carries a political message.
3. Mansfield’s Ambivalent Representation of the Maori in “How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped” In this section, I re-examine what travel experiences she drew on or concealed to create “How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped,” and then her ambivalent descriptions of Maori people in this story are also discussed. Mansfield used her travel experience in the Urewera district to create “The Woman at the Store,” “Millie,” and “How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped” (Gordon 27). “The Woman at the Store” and “Millie” were based on the realities and problems of colonial women’s lives that Mansfield saw during this trip. However, in “How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped,” Mansfield conceals the real situation where Maori people live (e.g. Maori people’s ill health and poor living condition) in order to portray idealized Maori who are culturally and racially different from white settlers. In other words, her preference for non-westernized and pure Maori is fully reflected in this story. In addition to this, even though in her Urewera journey, Mansfield saw several Maori engaged in jobs, she portrayed innocent and childish Maori who do not work and always smile in this story. It is clear that Mansfield fabricates an image of too childish Maori by concealing the realities of Maori people’s lives and their resistance to whites. As a result, Mansfield’s portraits of Maori people look like just the remains of the innocent “noble savage.” 7 However, this story carries the connotation of dark colonial history. Readers are left to interpret this open-ended story variously. One interpretation is that men in blue coats are the real kidnappers, though in the Western perspective, Maori people are the kidnappers. Carey Snyder suggests that the ending of this story hints at an awareness of the colonial violence: “the shouts and whistles of the constables who come to reclaim the white Pearl from her Maori kidnappers allude subtly to a history of conquest and internment that makes the Maori way of life seem suddenly vulnerable to incursion by a
2017 15 南半球評論 hostile hegemonic culture” (143). We can say that Mansfield’s encounter with the marks of the violent colonial past and the impacts of colonization upon the Maori during her trip are the foundation of this story. In this story, on one hand, Mansfield implies the violence of colonial history and criticizes white settlers’ values,8 and on the other hand, ironically, her portraits of the Maori just enforce the stereotyped image of the Maori.
Conclusion Mansfield’s Urewera journey led her to clearly recognize that New Zealand white society had been formed by the sacrifices of Maori people. Therefore, in “How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped,” Mansfield implies the violence of colonial history and criticizes white settler’s values. However, Mansfield’s attitude toward the Maori is ambivalent. Even though she encountered a variety of Maori people and the real situations of their lives through her camping trip, she again romanticized and idealized Maori people in Pearl’s story. As a result, by encountering the primitive Other, Mansfield’s white protagonist learns new values of life and finds her repressed sexual desire, but at the same time Mansfield’s descriptions of the Maori people ironically enforce the stereotyped image of the Maori as innocent “noble savages.” Taking into consideration the fact that Maori people were exclusively pushed away to the periphery in those days, Mansfield subliminally regarded them as endangered species to be extinct in the near future. Even though Mansfield criticized the action of whites as well as sympathized with the social position of the Maori, her stereotypical images and descriptions of the Maori are proof that she was not free from prejudice towards the indigenous people. Mansfield’s ambivalent outlook on the Maori in The Urewera Notebook is fully reflected in the ambivalent representation of the Maori in “How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped.”
*This is a revised and expanded version of a paper read at the 35th Annual Conference of the Virginia Woolf Society of Japan held at Aoyama Gakuin University on 17 October 2015.
南半球評論 16 2017 Notes 1. The “Urewera Notebook” was transcribed by four editors (John Middleton Murry, Ian A. Gordon, Margaret Scott, and Anna Plumridge). See Plumridge for a full account of editorial history of the “Urewera Notebook” (23-42). Unless otherwise indicated, all quotations of Mansfield’s account of her journey into the Ureweras come from Plumridge’s transcription of the “Urewera Notebook.” 2. Critics have already revealed the fact that Mansfield was sexually attracted to Maata in her teens. In 1900, Mansfield joined Miss Swainson’s School in Wellington. She met Maata there. While Mansfield attended Queen’s College in London (from 1903 to 1906), their friendship continued. After Mansfield came back to Wellington, they still kept their friendship. On June 29th 1907, Mansfield wrote of her lesbian desire: “Do other people of my own age feel as I do I wonder so absolutely powerful licentious, so almost physically ill. I alone in this silent clock filled room have become powerfully – – – I want Maata. I want her as I have had her – terribly” (Notebooks vol.1, 103-04). Mansfield also wrote “Summer Idylle,” featuring an erotic relationship between a white girl Hinemoa and a Maori girl Marina. This unpublished vignette appeared in Mansfield’s notebook in 1906. Margaret Scott, a transcriber and editor of Katherine Mansfield Notebooks, notes that Hinemoa seems to be based on Mansfield herself while Marina seems to be Maata (Notebooks vol.1, 75). 3. Mansfield recorded as follows: “By and by through the track we met two Maoris in dirty blue ducks – one can hardly speak English – They are surveyors” (92). 4. Mansfield saw several deserted whares and explained the reason of the scarcity of inhabitants as follows: “All the people must doubtless have gone shearing” (95). 5. For example, at Rotorua, even though Mansfield felt so ill, encountering a strong Maori brought joy into her heart. “Then meet a Maori again – walking along – barefooted and strong – she shouted Te nokoto – and Kathie’s heart is warm again – ” (100). 6. Mansfield wrote that “I’m quite fond of all the people – they are ultra-Colonial but thoroughly kind & good hearted & generous – and always more than good to me” (115). 7. According to Hoxie Fairchild, the idea of the “noble savage” was from “the fusion of three elements: the observation of explorers; various classical and medieval conventions; the deductions of philosophers and men of letters” (2). And he defined the “noble savage” as “any free and wild being who draws directly from nature virtues which raise doubts as to the value of civilization” (ibid.).
2017 17 南半球評論 8. Mansfield also treats these issues (e.g. Maori land rights and white settler’s dream of settlement) in her story, “Old Tar” (1913).
Works Cited Aretoulakis, Emmanouil. “Colonialism and the Need for Impurity: Katherine Mansfield, ‘The Garden Party’ and Postcolonial Feeling.” Katherine Mansfield and the (Post) colonial. Ed. Janet Wilson, Gerri Kimber, and Delia da Sousa Correa. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2013. 45-62. Dunbar, Pamela. Radical Mansfield: Double Discourse in Katherine Mansfield’s Short Stories. London: Macmillan, 1997. Fairchild, Hoxie Neale. The Noble Savage: A Study in Romantic Naturalism. New York: Russell and Russell, 1961. Fullbrook, Kate. Katherine Mansfield. Sussex: Harvester, 1986. Gordon, Ian A, ed. The Urewera Notebook. By Katherine Mansfield. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1978. King, Michael. The Penguin History of New Zealand. North Shore: Penguin, 2003. Mansfield, Katherine. “How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped.” The Collected Stories. London: Penguin, 2001. 519-23. ---. The Katherine Mansfield Notebooks. Ed. Margaret Scott. Complete ed. 2 vols. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 2002. Maxwell, Anne. “A Young Writer’s Journey into the New Zealand Interior: Katherine Mansfield’s The Urewera Notebook.” Travel Writing in the Nineteenth Century: Filling the Blank Spaces. Ed. Tim Youngs. London: Anthem Press, 2006. 219- 36. Plumridge, Anna, ed. The Urewera Notebook by Katherine Mansfield. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2015. Pool, Ian. “Death Rates and Life Expectancy – Effects of Colonisation on Māori.” Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. 3 October 2017
（おおたに えりか：福岡女子大学 / 九州大学大学院） 【査読済2017年12月26日受理】
南半球評論 18 2017