Book and Media Reviews

Book and Media Reviews The Contemporary Pacic, Volume 28, Number 2, 491–529 © 2016 by University of Hawai‘i Press 491 494 the contemporary pacific • 28:2 (2016) is at once history and anthropology, ranging book is: “Do Pacific festivals cultural studies and critical studies, reflect the ways in which the Pacific discourse analysis and geopolitical diaspora is constructed, is imagined, theorizing. This volume provides and has evolved in New Zealand?” scholars and students with a highly (4). The Pacific Festivals of Aotearoa readable model showcasing some New Zealand demonstrates this evolu- of the ways in which a researcher’s tion through analyses of festival orga- personal journey can serve as a useful nization, musical performances, and roadmap to the past. interviews with key participants about anne perez hattori identity, place, and belonging. Part provides a historical con- University of Guam 1 text for Pacific festivals in Aotearoa *** beginning with an overview of Pacific migration focused on the period from The Pacific Festivals of Aotearoa the mid-1960s through the mid-1970s. New Zealand: Negotiating Place and Major sociocultural and political Identity in a New Homeland, by Jared policy changes during this time, such Mackley-Crump. Honolulu: University as the dramatic Dawn Raids of the of Hawai‘i Press, 2015. isbn 978-0- mid-1970s, saw the deportation of 8248-3871-3; x + 217 pages, glossary, thousands of Pacific people—many references, index. Cloth, us$58.00. of whom were legal residents—and created widespread fear and mistrust. The Pasifika Festival, the largest From this environment, the first fes- Pacific festival in the world, is held tivals emerged as a creative response annually in March at Western Springs, to marginalization. In subsequent Auckland. In 2012, it attracted decades, and as the New Zealand– between 100,000 and 200,000 people, born Pacific population has grown, including visitors, community mem- new forms of cultural and political bers, and performers. In The Pacific organization have emerged in concert Festivals of Aotearoa New Zealand: with Pacific festivals around the coun- Negotiating Place and Identity in try. Chapter 1 covers the origins of a New Homeland, Jared Mackley- these and other multicultural festivals, Crump provides a welcome genealogy in text and with tables, before mov- of this event, as well as other Pacific ing on to an analysis of the Pasifika festivals, within the global context Festival and Wellington’s Positively of “festivalization” and the specific Pasifika Festival in subsequent chap- sociocultural formations of race and ters. While this in-depth documenta- migration policy in Aotearoa/New tion will no doubt be a very useful his- Zealand. The author adopts an inter- torical record for interested parties, it disciplinary framework, making use contains a level of detail that may not of his ethnomusicology background, appeal to more generalist readers. This ethnographic fieldwork methods, and could also be said about the analysis conceptual innovations drawn from of logistics, infrastructure, and event Pacific and Indigenous scholarship. management of the festivals. Never- The key question guiding this wide- theless, at various points throughout book and media reviews 495 this first part we are treated to some magazine; I’m worried about Auntie fascinating insights as to the workings going, ‘You sucked’” (125). of organizational structures, includ- Chapter 4 explores how Pacific ing the way stakeholders narrate their festivals require specific types of roles and tensions between govern- leadership and engagement. These ment and community groups in terms issues are explored through notions of of engagement and control of the final “cultural competencies,” “polycultural event’s production. capital,” and “edgewalking”—the Part 2 shifts focus to the “festival ability to work across and between space,” based on fieldwork at both institutional cultures (such as local the Pasifika and Positively Pasifika government) and Pacific communi- Festivals that included the author ties. These festivals embody tensions working with organizers in the lead- evident in the broader community up to the events. Four key themes about the lack of culturally appropri- emerge that comprise the chapters: ate training and consultation, at the logistics, leadership, and develop- same time as they demonstrate ways in ment; performances; community; which capacity-building and commu- and place, identity, and belonging. nity-development principles can occur Sensitively rendered interviews with in event management. key administrative staff, performers, One issue that invariably arises at and “village” stall coordinators are a festivals is the question of cultural highlight of the book. However, very authenticity, resulting in the deploy- little sense is given of the composition ment of largely unhelpful dichotomies of the festivals’ audiences, making it of “traditional” versus “contempo- hard to gauge who attends. Are they rary” artistic forms. In an approach predominately Pacific Islander? Or influenced by Pacific epistemologies do Māori, Pākehā, and other non- and concepts such as “tauhi vā,” Pacific people also attend? Neverthe- Mackley-Crump demonstrates how less, Mackley-Crump creates intimate sociocultural networks enfold people portraits of how Pacific identities are across time and space in a dynamic formulated in urban spaces as well as where traditions operate contempora- through transnational networks of kin neously with the present and future. and community. Hip-hop artist King Tongan Bollywood, Samoan brass Kapisi, for example, describes how his bands, and Pan-Pacific hip-hop and performances at Pacific festivals form reggae combined with and alongside part of his aim to inspire and “give specific Island performance tradi- back” to young Pacific people. Part of tions are examples of these creative this obligation to the community also maneuvers. involves toning down swearing and What emerges is a picture of how performing the “happy” rather than Pacific communities negotiate group the “angry” tracks, so as not to shame identities with reference to other his family. Te Awanui “Awa” Reeder, populations both within Aotearoa of the group Nesian Mystik, humor- and in the broader Pacific. The history ously adds to this statement: “I’m not of Pacific festivals bears witness to worried about the reviewers in the negotiations of relationships between 496 the contemporary pacific • 28:2 (2016) Māori and Pacific peoples that are of migrant identity in settler-colonial enacted through public policy and societies. community arts and between commu- kalissa alexeyeff nity groups. Festivals are also a vehicle The University of Melbourne for redefining relations between Aotearoa and the region as new urban *** Pacific identities are influenced by the multidirectional flows of people, The Things We Value: Culture and goods, and information. All of this History in Solomon Islands, edited by contributes to a fine-grained descrip- Ben Burt and Lissant Bolton. Canon tion of how the festival enacts a work Pyon, uk: Sean Kingston Publishing, of “territorialization,” creating pride 2014. isbn 978-1-90774-21-8; 149 in belonging to Pacific New Zealand, pages, photographs, endnotes, refer- as evidenced, for example, in an older ences, contributors, index. Cloth, performer describing the festival as us$135.00. “part of the [migrant] dream,” in stark contrast to the 1970s when “our The Things We Value: Culture and people were getting bagged and put History in Solomon Islands derives down, called coconuts and losers” from a Melanesian art project spon- (178). sored by the British Museum and the Much of The Pacific Festivals of University of Cambridge Museum Aotearoa New Zealand covers the for Archaeology and Anthropology layers of dialogue between com- and funded by the British Arts and munities and government policy and Humanities Research Council, 2005– reveals the amount of hard work 2010. The first object of note for this and unpaid labor that goes into the book is its cover. The photograph on organization of community festi- the cover conveys an immediate mes- vals. Understanding these historical sage. A young woman wearing beauti- configurations is particularly relevant ful shell ornaments holds up a camera given poor attendance at the latest through which she is obviously focus- Pasifika Festival, held in March 2015, ing on the reader of the book. The where Pacific community groups bright red color of the camera empha- criticized the hypocrisy of govern- sizes its presence. The camera lens is ment funding cuts for the event while no longer the colonial lens through the Auckland City Council appeared which so many outsiders have viewed to expect Pacific peoples to be the Solomon Islanders. That perspective city’s “performing monkeys” or has been reversed—a major objective “pretty face,” as noted in an article of the book and of the conference that by Fa‘anana Efeso Collins in the July preceded it. 2015 issue of Islands Business. The The title indicates the book’s book is relevant to anthropology, focus: how and why things are valued Pacific studies, and festival studies by Solomon Islanders within their as well as to ethnomusicology and individual social contexts. These are tourism studies. It will also appeal to the subjects explored by authors of an audience interested in negotiations the introduction and twelve chapters .

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