maori and pacific

Bridgehead and Beacon

August 1, 2018 Leave a Comment

Simon Cunliffe

Dawn Raids by Oscar Kightley (Playmarket, Victoria University Press, 2017), 103 pp., $18

Twenty years on from its premiere in 1997, and more than 40 from the events it depicts, Oscar Kightley’s seminal play, Dawn Raids, continues to resonate – and perhaps for more than the obvious reasons.

The raids, a shameful episode in this country’s history, were initiated under the Labour government of Norman Kirk from about 1973 and carried out with renewed zeal by the National government of Robert Muldoon from 1975. They were aimed at finding and repatriating Pacific Islanders who had overstayed their work permit visas. The searches were typically executed in the early hours of the morning and were carried out by immigration officials and squads of police with dogs. Pasifika people were woken from their beds, randomly stopped in the street or singled out at their work places, and asked to show proof of identity and immigration status. Those failing to produce the requisite paperwork were deemed to be ‘overstayers’ and summarily deported. [Read more…]

Serious in Intent, Playful in Manner

April 1, 2018 Leave a Comment

Simone Oettli-van Delden

Sleeps Standing Moetū by Witi Ihimaera with Hēmi Kelly (Vintage, 2017), 221 pp., $35

This book defies simple definition. Its inputs are multiple. Primarily it is a book about the Battle of Ōrākau, the final and decisive onslaught of the Waikato land wars, in which 300 Māori men, women and children are estimated to have fought with outstanding bravery against 1700 or more British Imperial troops. The Māori warriors withstood constant bombardment by artillery for three days, from 31 March to 2 April 1864. Witi Ihimaera adds a contemporary touch by having the narrator Papa Rua and his sister, Hūhana, recount the tale to their nephew, a young Māori named Simon who lives in Australia and is keen to hear stories about his ancestors. Simon is particularly interested in Moetū, a nineteenth-century sixteen-year-old boy from the Rongowhakaata Iwi in Tūranga (Gisborne), because he and his pregnant wife want to name their unborn son after him. [Read more…]

Radical Acts of Transgression

November 1, 2017 Leave a Comment

Vaughan Rapatahana

Black Marks on the White Page, edited by Witi Ihimaera and Tina Makereti (Penguin Random House, 2017), 336 pp., $40

You can certainly judge a book by its cover, in this case. On the dust jacket of Black Marks on the White Page, starkly smudged in black and white, James Ormsby has depicted a marvellous indigenous historical panorama, incorporating a Pacific vista wider than the terms ‘Oceania’ or the so-called ‘Australasia’ might denote. I was also impressed by the stories and tales inside, sprawled across the white pages like internecine moko; they are universally compelling reading, both for their content and for the ways in which they are written. Almost all articulate distinctive indigenous Pasifika voices in refreshing refrains. Some are especially brilliant. [Read more…]

Tracing One Iwi’s Carving Style

February 1, 2017 Leave a Comment

Andrew Paul Wood

A Whakapapa of Tradition: One hundred years of Ngāti Porou carving, 1830–1930 by Ngarino Ellis with new photography by Natalie Robertson (Auckland University Press, 2016), 304 pp., $69.99

The arrival of Pākehā in Aotearoa was not a good thing for Māori whakairo taonga; vide the denuded whare of Ngāpuhi, their carved ancestors deemed pagan and too sensual by prudish missionaries. The more discerning Victorians castrated such carvings with hammer and chisel, which echoes down the ages as recently as 2010 when a local became distressed on a visit with his four children to Te Parapara Garden at the renowned Hamilton Gardens, when confronted by the symbolically heroic scale of the graven genitalia on display. Oh dear. Even carvings in the nation’s museums as late as the mid-twentieth century weren’t safe, and were given a generous coating of red enamel paint in the run-up to special occasions like royal visits. [Read more…]

Ask that Mountain

November 1, 2016 Leave a Comment

Gerry Te Kapa Coates

Te Whiti O Rongomai and the Resistance of Parihaka by Danny Keenan (Huia Publishers, 2015), 275 pp., $45

It is some time since I read Dick Scott’s Ask That Mountain, so Danny Keenan’s book is a welcome refresher, informed as it is by his ancestry, contacts and biography of Te Whiti in the Dictionary of NZ Biography. It is a readable, inspiring but ultimately sad tale about how colonial power and injustice was imposed on Māori. The book is well illustrated by present-day images of Parihaka, and a beautiful 1903 painting of Te Whiti by the artist and photographer James McDonald. The book starts slowly with a chapter on origins and whakapapa, and then gathers momentum. There are some minor quibbles regarding absences in the index and not quite enough mentions of dates to allow the reader to get a sense of chronological progress, but nevertheless this is a welcome addition to the canon of work on our greatest peaceful warrior, whose mana regarding ‘passive resistance’ equals that of Gandhi. [Read more…]