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The rationale for this thesis rests on the considerable contributions Cook Islands writers have made to the wider Pacific literary field during the formative years of Pacific literature (1960s and 1970s) and acknowledges the key role scholars and writers such as Majorie Tuainekore Crocombe, Alistair Te Ariki Campbell, Kauraka Kauraka and Makiuti Tongia, played in this early literary production. These figures provided an important space for Cook Islands writers to come, the result of which has created an impressive and compelling body of Cook Islands writing – one that, until this thesis, had not been fully surveyed in detail. In undertaking this mapping exercise, the Cook Islands art of quilting/tivaivai has been employed as a conceptual framework for the thesis. Key critical works by noteworthy Pacific writers, theorists and scholars have been consulted and referred to throughout this research, while attempting to adopt a Cook Islands world-view in the close-reading of these texts. To synthesize the key features of a Cook Islands literary aesthetic, this thesis gives critical treatment to four of the earliest Cook Islands poets who have not been given thorough critical treatment in any other piece of scholarship to date. They are: Makitui Tongia, Kauraka Kauraka, Va’ine Iro-Nui Rasmussen and Jean Tekura’i’imoana Mason. The thesis concludes by reflecting on the main facets of what is a communal Cook Islands literary aesthetic. It reflects on examples drawn from the analyses and historiography of the field. Finally, a brief discussion of the current state of the conceptual tivaivai – the Cook Islands literary field – is given, with some comment on the possible future for Cook Islands literature. ii Dedication For Richard John Powell and Teupoko Enua, my grandparents. With infinite love. iii Acknowledgements Aunty Frances, Uncle Phil, Ri, Paaly and Gabey, for dinners, advice and spoiling me as you always have. Mum, Rolly, Teipo, Sonya, for listening and loving. Jean Mason, Marjorie Crocombe, Mike Tavioni, Ina and John Herrman, Ian George, Jon Jonassen, Audrey Brown-Pereira, Miria George, Makiuti Tongia - for your time and your words, my heartfelt gratitude. The Teiotu and Okotai families, for making me feel welcome on my very first visit to Rarotonga. To Papa Ina, with love. Thanks and acknowledgements to the Equity Office, the committee for the Maori and Pacific Leadership Grant and the committee for the Tuākana Contestable Fund. I humbly thank you for providing the opportunity for me to undertake research in Rarotonga in June 2012 and for providing me with the means to present my research at the South Pacific Association of Language and Literary Studies Literary Festival at NUS in Samoa. The Pac/Maori Postgrad crew – for two fantastic writing retreats in Port Waikato. Chur for the talanoa sessions! Nga mihi nui! My Wellington whanau, Callum, Rach, Nat, Hoi, the LNT family. My “good people” in Auckland, new and old. Max, Lou, the History and Development Studies crew, Tiria, Michelle. Oscar, for conversations shared over strong coffee. May we always share our critical thoughts about food and life! Fa’afetai tele lava to Selina, for patience, inspiring words, criticisms, compliments and reminders about the importance of this thesis. “Life in a bubble!” Alofa tele atu. Last but not least – to all the Cook Islands writers who have penned some of the most beautiful writing I have ever read. Thank you for reminding me that even though there have been many closed doors, your writing has left many other ones open for me. My heartfelt love and respect, for in writing you have made an exquisite literary tivaivai. Aro’anui e meitaki ma’ata koutou katoatoa. iv Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................................ ii Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... iv Contents ............................................................................................................................................ v Chapter One – Cutting Paper Patterns: An Introduction .................................................................. 1 1.1 Methodology: From Fibre to Fabric ....................................................................................... 4 1.2 A note on terminology .......................................................................................................... 10 Chapter Two - Koikoi: A survey of Cook Islands writing in English ........................................... 11 2.1 Stitching in Time .................................................................................................................. 11 2.2 Laying the backing cloth: a postcolonial and diasporic fabric ............................................. 24 2.3 Genealogy and the Quilt ....................................................................................................... 29 2.3.1 The Colonial Period ....................................................................................................... 30 2.3.2 The First Wave .............................................................................................................. 32 2.3.3 Ta’unga & the anthologies: into the 1990s .................................................................... 36 2.3.4 The 2000s & Beyond ..................................................................................................... 41 Chapter Three – Tuitui’anga: “Each stitch joins the Tivaevae Pattern to the Back-Bone” ........... 46 3.1 Four Cook Islands Writers.................................................................................................... 46 3.2 Makiuti Tongia ..................................................................................................................... 49 3.2.1: Submission, slavery and a “swampy coast for the namu” ........................................... 54 3.2.2 White, black and hungry dogs: Nationhood and regional proximities .......................... 65 3.3 Kauraka Kauraka .................................................................................................................. 73 3.3.1 Hey Maui-Potiki! What are you doing?: Maui & Mythology ....................................... 77 3.3.2. Return to Havaiki ......................................................................................................... 84 3.4 Va’ine Rasmussen ................................................................................................................ 90 3.4.1 Take me / Tomorrow / Take me Away: Nostalgia & Tribute ....................................... 93 3.4.2 The Sea ........................................................................................................................ 100 3.5 Jean Tekura’i’imoana Mason ............................................................................................. 106 3.5.1 Ma’uke ......................................................................................................................... 109 3.5.2 What’s in a Name? (39) .............................................................................................. 116 Chapter Four – Akairianga .......................................................................................................... 122 4.1 “My mother sews her love / into each stitch / That joins the tivaevae pattern / to the backbone”: a communal Cook Islands literary aesthetic. ......................................................... 122 4.2 Possible Futures .................................................................................................................. 125 Appendices ..................................................................................................................................