The Festivalisation of Pacific Cultures in New Zealand: Diasporic Flow and Identity Within ‘A Sea of Islands’
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The Festivalisation of Pacific Cultures in New Zealand: Diasporic Flow and Identity within ‘a Sea of Islands’ A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Otago Dunedin New Zealand Jared Mackley-Crump 2012 Abstract In the second half of the twentieth century, New Zealand witnessed a period of significant change, a period that resulted in dramatic demographic shifts. As a result of economic diversification, the New Zealand government looked to the Pacific (and to the at the time predominantly rural Māori population) to fill increasing labour shortages. Pacific Peoples began to migrate to New Zealand in large numbers from the mid-1960s and continued to do so until the mid-1970s, by which time changing economic conditions had impacted the country’s migration needs. At around this time, in 1976, the first major moment of the festivalisation of Pacific cultures occured. As the communities continued to grow and become entrenched, more festivals were initiated across the country. By 2010, with Pacific peoples making up approximately 7% of the population, there were twenty-five annual festivals held from the northernmost towns to the bottom of the South Island. By comparing the history of Pacific festivals and peoples in New Zealand, I argue that festivals reflect how Pacific communities have been transformed from small communities of migrants to large communities of largely New Zealand-born Pacific peoples. Uncovering the meanings of festivals and the musical performances presented within festival spaces, I show how notions of place, culture and identity have been changed in the process. Conceiving of the Pacific as a vast interconnected ‘Sea of Islands’ kinship network (Hau’ofa 1994), where people, trade, arts and customs have circulated across millennia, I propose that Pacific festivals represent the most highly visible public manifestations of this network operating within New Zealand, and of New Zealand’s place within it. Pacific festivals are spaces through which a range of Pacific identities are (re)affirmed, and through which connections to belonging elsewhere, or to other cultural realities, are asserted and communicated. Concurrently, and through a process of territorialisation (Duffy 1999a, 2000), Pacific festivals also recode and alter the places in which they take place, situating New Zealand as ii a Pacific nation and allowing Pacific peoples to stake a claim and assert a belonging to the New Zealand nation. Finally, these processes are interrelated, creating ‘mooring posts’ around which dynamic, fluid and evolving urban diasporic Pacific identities can be created, negotiated and celebrated. These displays of ‘polycultural capital’ (Mila-Schaaf 2010) are critical in the process of creating diasporic identities, often conceived of as belonging to neither here nor there. Through the Pacific festival space, these identities are stabilised, representing and asserting a belonging to both here and there. iii Acknowledgements This research journey has changed me in numerous ways. Of the most profound, they have reinstalled in me a sense of the importance of genealogies and of connections to land. In this sense, I firstly acknowledge and pay tribute to those passed, whose crossed paths and connected lives created and have shaped not only my own, but those whose paths have crossed with mine during the course of this research. I also acknowledge the connections I have to my land – to Porirua, to New Zealand – and how it has influenced and shaped who I have become. The dramatic geographies of our Island nation at the edge of the world have long been a character in our stories, our art, our culture, our identities. To my supervisors, Professor Henry Johnson and Dr Dan Bendrups, thank you for guiding my research journey, for pointing me towards possible destinations but allowing me the freedom and space to venture out into the unknown, reporting back as and when needed for necessary refuelling. Thank you for asking questions that made my head sore and for which I had no answers; I’m certain they assisted in leading to the answers I now have. I also acknowledge the support and friendship of many other staff and students at the University of Otago Music Department. To the whanau – Mum, Dad and Debby, Craig, Nick, Jack and Sophia, and the rest – thanks for continuing to support the educational aspirations that extended well beyond the original three-year undergraduate plan. Thanks for continuing to feed and allow me to come home as and when required, and for listening to my sometimes-pompous rants, over the past seven years. With final degree in hand, it will hopefully soon all be worth the while! There are friends too numerous to name, but many have played specific and significant roles in this journey. To dear friends Shondell, and Sarah and Damien: that friendships remain in spite of the physical and figurative distance travelled since they first began, means the world to me. To Sarah iv and Damien, thanks for many times opening up the ‘Casa le Breton’ Hotel to me – E Channel marathons, Coke Zero and all! Shondell, our lengthy chats over the years, about everything, have been invaluable. Aroha nui e hoa! To the Parnell Whanau and Auntie Jacqui, Uncle Hugh and the Girls, my South Island pit stops: I can’t explain how much I enjoyed my semi-regular visits on drives to and from Dunedin over the years. It was sad to see them end, but I can’t yet fathom another degree, at this stage anyway! And in Dunedin, to Shaz and Mik (and wee Jemima): your friendship during ‘the Dunedin years’ was a blessing, especially our weekly ‘fieastas’ during the three-month draft-writing boot camp of mid-2011, which kept me well-fed, and sane. No matter what distance may separate us in future: we’ll always have Kath & Kim, thenk-yews, and the ban Comic Sans movement! And I am forever indebted to Ian and Heather, and Suzanne, for providing the spacious lodgings during those three months that allowed me to be so productive. Professor and Mrs Dyke: too many words, none of them printable! And to the SJS crew: Martin, Ian, Jo, Crispy, Helen, Suzanne, Josey, and others: I know I will never again have a workplace so unique. I’m ok with that; I carry the memories. And finally, to those from ‘the field’, many who have become so much more than participants: I offer my humble thanks for your kindness and generosity, for sharing your knowledge, thoughts, ideas, and opinions. To Marie, Bessie, Ole, Rebecca, Tanya and Pos, Leehane, Pip and Hiliako, the Village Co- ordinators – Tua, Te’evā, Joana and Seta, Wai, Merea, Mina, Peggy, Neemia and Sarai – numerous performers, and others: this thesis is far from simply a collection of words that are my own, and I acknowledge the collective input of the many that helped to create the singular. Fakafetai! Lastly, but most of all: to Gareth. I thank all the factors that conspired to bring me to Auckland. Thank you for supporting me through my long journey, for being a willing participant in my ideas, my theories, my delusions of grandeur. Now that this is over, I can’t wait to see where our journey takes us next! Noqu Daulomani, vosa mada vakamālua. Vinaka, vinaka, vinaka vaka levu! v Terminology There are two terms used throughout this thesis that are contested and require some explanation as to the usage I have adopted. New Zealand/Aotearoa: The Māori name for New Zealand, Aotearoa (or together as Aotearoa New Zealand), has become increasingly used in both academic and non-academic contexts since the introduction of Government policies of biculturalism from the 1980s, and the impacts of the Māori cultural and political renaissance continued. This is not however uniform. For the purposes of consistency I have adopted to use only New Zealand throughout, highlighting the central role of ‘New Zealand’ as a political entity in the construction and creation of the Pacific diaspora, from the 1960s. Pasifika/Pacific/Pacifica/Pasefika: The term by which the diasporic Pacific peoples and cultures of New Zealand is referred to as a group, is far more contested and has been widely debated (see for example Mara et al. 1994; Wendt-Samu 1998 & 2006; Manu’atu 2000a, 2000b; Manu’atu and Kēpa 2002; Ferguson et al. 2008; Cotterall et al. 2009; Mila-Schaaf 2010). It is important to highlight that this is a debate that is occurring within Pacific communities and there is currently no unanimous agreement, something demonstrated by the variety of names various festivals have adopted. As with New Zealand, I have employed Pacific peoples and cultures throughout to remain consistent. Significantly, I emphasise plurality in that Pacific does not refer to an homogenous group and, in this respect, I have purposely moved away from the term Pacific Islanders, an early institutional and statistical term that carries these connotations. This term also appears however, when spoken by participants (reflecting the ongoing nature of the label debate) and, infrequently, in statistic-like discussion. vi Orthography note: Several words from Pacific languages appear in this thesis, such as kāinga, talanoa and tauhi vā. These terms are adapted from and used as they appear in their original quoted sources, namely the journals The Contemporary Pacific and the Waikato Journal of Education. Glossary of other non-English terms not otherwise explained within the text: Bure (Fijian), also Fale (Sāmoan): Open-style house/meeting place common throughout the Pacific. Fatale: The particular style of music most associated with Tuvalu and Tokelau (see Thomas 1988). Hongi: Māori greeting by which two people press noses and foreheads together, indicating a sharing of ha (breath of life). Iwi (Māori): Tribe. Kapa Haka: term that describes particular structured performances of Māori song and dance, including haka, poi songs, and waiata-ā-ringa (action songs).