FUELLING THE DEBATE ON VIOLENCE IN AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND'S Maori community, scientists have cl... more FUELLING THE DEBATE ON VIOLENCE IN AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND'S Maori community, scientists have claimed that what has been dubbed the 'warrior' gene is dominant in Maori males.1 The study contends that the gene, associated with aggressive and antisocial behaviour in general, might contribute to explaining the over-representation of Maori in violence statistics.2 Although ostensibly one-sided and ignorant of the broader socioeconomic context, such assertions create the need to interrogate the biased image of Maori people as 'warriors' - by Pakeha as much as by Maori - and its import for Indigenous culture today. By way of examining instances of Maori warriordom across socio-historical and cultural categories, changing notions of a Maori tradition of warfare are explored, interrogating the ways in which the concept of the warrior is embraced, maintained, and re-asserted as an intrinsic feature of modern Indigeneity, a process which reverberates in contemporary Maori writing.Colonial or Other' GazesContemporary stereotypes about Maori men frequently reduce their image to an instance of physicality, prowess, and often brutality, manifesting the Maori warrior as a cliche which is a perpetuation of colonial 'Othering' discourses. Such constructions negligently ignore and silence Indigenous cultural complexity and dynamics while at the same time reinforcing colonial notions of the 'noble savage'. The tradition of warfare seems to have emerged during the fourteenth century, a period that sawthe creation of an outstanding art and architectural tradition around the construction of finely carved and decorated meetinghouses; the development of an advanced science of horticulture; the formulation of a highly esoteric religious system; and the development of a complex social organization based on tribalism and chieftainship.3This cultural dynamic generated complex Indigenous communities, for which warfare was appropriated as a salient aspect of tribal life:Warfare was an extension of tribalism [ . . . ] and was so institutionalized that it permeated all areas of Classic Maori life: in art, meetinghouse carving served a powerful warrior-ancestor cult; chieftainship provided an energetic leadership system; and religion contributed a combative priesthood and spiritual support. Every tribal man, woman, and child served the institution of warfare.4Colonial constructions of Maori warriordom that hark back to traditional practices manifest themselves in oral tradition, colonial accounts, and archaeological evidence remain wilfully silent about the cultural complexity of the Indigenous people at that time, de-contextualizing warriordom by means of reducing the concept to an image of 'uncivilized' savagery and cannibalism. Even before settlers invaded the country at the close of the eighteenth century, colonial images of the savage 'warrior' were perpetuated by explorers to the Pacific, whose encounters with the Indigenous people in some part resulted in lethal confrontations or at least open hostility, as in the following manuscript of a journal entry from James Cook's first Pacific voyages:When ever we [were]viseted by any number of them that had never heard or seen any thing of us before they [generally] came off in [their] largest Canoes [...]. In each Canoe were generaly an Old man, in some two or three these use'd always to dire[c]t the others were better Clothed and generaly carried a halbard or battle ax in their hands [...]. As soon as they came within a"1*"" a stones throw of the Ship they would there lay and call out Haromai hare uta a pateo age that is come here, come a shore with us and we will kill you with our patoo patoo's and at the same time would shake them at us, at times they would dance the war dance, and other times they would [trade with and] talk to us and answer such questons as were put to them with all the Calmness emaginable and then again begin the war dance, shaking their paddles patoo patoo's [. …
This article sets the critical analysis of gender dynamics in Pacific women’s literature in a dec... more This article sets the critical analysis of gender dynamics in Pacific women’s literature in a decolonizing context of trans-Indigenous feminist theories. Māori author Patricia Grace, and Indigenous Australian writer and scholar Melissa Lucashenko center storytelling as a critical methodology in establishing Aboriginality as the central knowledge regime in their writing. Within the framework of a trans-Indigenous methodology, the present study is grounded on and engages with Indigenous feminist theories from the Pacific and beyond: A recognition of multiply situated knowledge and “herstories” establishes female connection to land, spirituality, and community, alongside experiences of colonial invasion and oppression, as key commonalities in Indigenous writing. Through storytelling, Grace and Lucashenko envision gender regimes that reflect Indigenous women’s complexity, as well as authority, positioning Indigenous Pacific women as active agents in confronting sexist patriarchal hegemony, and instrumental for creating balance in gender relations, family, community, and nation, amid complex processes of decolonization.
This article sets out to examine the way in which Indigenous trauma texts employ storytelling as ... more This article sets out to examine the way in which Indigenous trauma texts employ storytelling as discursive practice and convention to narrate the complex forces of collective and transgenerational traumata. An analysis of Tina Makereti's debut novel Where the Rēkohu Bone Sings (2014) will illustrate the way in which Indigenous storytelling is employed as a discursive practice as well as a narrative convention to convey and process Indigenous experiences of trauma. Examining trauma narratives within the limited analytic framework of traditional trauma theory remains unsatisfactory with regard to Indigenous texts that deal with the multiple-layered forms of collective and transgenerational trauma. Thus, while informed by literary trauma theory as well as postcolonial studies, my theoretical approach is first and foremost based on Indigenous theories and knowledges, which are crucial to better comprehend the representation and articulation of trauma in Indigenous narratives. Focus will be on examining the Indigenous tradition of storytelling as a narrative mode and convention for Indigenous trauma fiction. Visser (2015) persuasively argues that '[t]he nuanced exploration and conceptualization of the function of indigenous belief systems in the engagement with trauma would constitute a further necessary development in the project of achieving a fully decolonized trauma theory' (263). By engaging with Indigenous epistemologies with regard to storytelling in the analysis of Indigenous trauma narratives, this article hopes to contribute to the discussion.
This article sets the critical analysis of gender dynamics in Pacific women’s literature in a dec... more This article sets the critical analysis of gender dynamics in Pacific women’s literature in a decolonizing context of trans-Indigenous feminist theories. Māori author Patricia Grace, and Indigenous Australian writer and scholar Melissa Lucashenko center storytelling as a critical methodology in establishing Aboriginality as the central knowledge regime in their writing. Within the framework of a trans-Indigenous methodology, the present study is grounded on and engages with Indigenous feminist theories from the Pacific and beyond: A recognition of multiply situated knowledge and “herstories” establishes female connection to land, spirituality, and community, alongside experiences of colonial invasion and oppression, as key commonalities in Indigenous writing. Through storytelling, Grace and Lucashenko envision gender regimes that reflect Indigenous women’s complexity, as well as authority, positioning Indigenous Pacific women as active agents in confronting sexist patriarchal hegemo...
This article sets the critical analysis of gender dynamics in Pacific women’s literature in a dec... more This article sets the critical analysis of gender dynamics in Pacific women’s literature in a decolonizing context of trans-Indigenous feminist theories. Māori author Patricia Grace, and Indigenous Australian writer and scholar Melissa Lucashenko center storytelling as a critical methodology in establishing Aboriginality as the central knowledge regime in their writing. Within the framework of a trans-Indigenous methodology, the present study is grounded on and engages with Indigenous feminist theories from the Pacific and beyond: A recognition of multiply situated knowledge and “herstories” establishes female connection to land, spirituality, and community, alongside experiences of colonial invasion and oppression, as key commonalities in Indigenous writing. Through storytelling, Grace and Lucashenko envision gender regimes that reflect Indigenous women’s complexity, as well as authority, positioning Indigenous Pacific women as active agents in confronting sexist patriarchal hegemony, and instrumental for creating balance in gender relations, family, community, and nation, amid complex processes of decolonization.
This article sets out to examine the way in which Indigenous trauma texts employ storytelling as ... more This article sets out to examine the way in which Indigenous trauma texts employ storytelling as discursive practice and convention to narrate the complex forces of collective and transgenerational traumata. An analysis of Tina Makereti's debut novel Where the Rēkohu Bone Sings (2014) will illustrate the way in which Indigenous storytelling is employed as a discursive practice as well as a narrative convention to convey and process Indigenous experiences of trauma. Examining trauma narratives within the limited analytic framework of traditional trauma theory remains unsatisfactory with regard to Indigenous texts that deal with the multiple-layered forms of collective and transgenerational trauma. Thus, while informed by literary trauma theory as well as postcolonial studies, my theoretical approach is first and foremost based on Indigenous theories and knowledges, which are crucial to better comprehend the representation and articulation of trauma in Indigenous narratives. Focus will be on examining the Indigenous tradition of storytelling as a narrative mode and convention for Indigenous trauma fiction. Visser (2015) persuasively argues that '[t]he nuanced exploration and conceptualization of the function of indigenous belief systems in the engagement with trauma would constitute a further necessary development in the project of achieving a fully decolonized trauma theory' (263). By engaging with Indigenous epistemologies with regard to storytelling in the analysis of Indigenous trauma narratives, this article hopes to contribute to the discussion.
FUELLING THE DEBATE ON VIOLENCE IN AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND'S Maori community, scientists have cl... more FUELLING THE DEBATE ON VIOLENCE IN AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND'S Maori community, scientists have claimed that what has been dubbed the 'warrior' gene is dominant in Maori males.1 The study contends that the gene, associated with aggressive and antisocial behaviour in general, might contribute to explaining the over-representation of Maori in violence statistics.2 Although ostensibly one-sided and ignorant of the broader socioeconomic context, such assertions create the need to interrogate the biased image of Maori people as 'warriors' - by Pakeha as much as by Maori - and its import for Indigenous culture today. By way of examining instances of Maori warriordom across socio-historical and cultural categories, changing notions of a Maori tradition of warfare are explored, interrogating the ways in which the concept of the warrior is embraced, maintained, and re-asserted as an intrinsic feature of modern Indigeneity, a process which reverberates in contemporary Maori writing.Colonial or Other' GazesContemporary stereotypes about Maori men frequently reduce their image to an instance of physicality, prowess, and often brutality, manifesting the Maori warrior as a cliche which is a perpetuation of colonial 'Othering' discourses. Such constructions negligently ignore and silence Indigenous cultural complexity and dynamics while at the same time reinforcing colonial notions of the 'noble savage'. The tradition of warfare seems to have emerged during the fourteenth century, a period that sawthe creation of an outstanding art and architectural tradition around the construction of finely carved and decorated meetinghouses; the development of an advanced science of horticulture; the formulation of a highly esoteric religious system; and the development of a complex social organization based on tribalism and chieftainship.3This cultural dynamic generated complex Indigenous communities, for which warfare was appropriated as a salient aspect of tribal life:Warfare was an extension of tribalism [ . . . ] and was so institutionalized that it permeated all areas of Classic Maori life: in art, meetinghouse carving served a powerful warrior-ancestor cult; chieftainship provided an energetic leadership system; and religion contributed a combative priesthood and spiritual support. Every tribal man, woman, and child served the institution of warfare.4Colonial constructions of Maori warriordom that hark back to traditional practices manifest themselves in oral tradition, colonial accounts, and archaeological evidence remain wilfully silent about the cultural complexity of the Indigenous people at that time, de-contextualizing warriordom by means of reducing the concept to an image of 'uncivilized' savagery and cannibalism. Even before settlers invaded the country at the close of the eighteenth century, colonial images of the savage 'warrior' were perpetuated by explorers to the Pacific, whose encounters with the Indigenous people in some part resulted in lethal confrontations or at least open hostility, as in the following manuscript of a journal entry from James Cook's first Pacific voyages:When ever we [were]viseted by any number of them that had never heard or seen any thing of us before they [generally] came off in [their] largest Canoes [...]. In each Canoe were generaly an Old man, in some two or three these use'd always to dire[c]t the others were better Clothed and generaly carried a halbard or battle ax in their hands [...]. As soon as they came within a"1*"" a stones throw of the Ship they would there lay and call out Haromai hare uta a pateo age that is come here, come a shore with us and we will kill you with our patoo patoo's and at the same time would shake them at us, at times they would dance the war dance, and other times they would [trade with and] talk to us and answer such questons as were put to them with all the Calmness emaginable and then again begin the war dance, shaking their paddles patoo patoo's [. …
This article sets the critical analysis of gender dynamics in Pacific women’s literature in a dec... more This article sets the critical analysis of gender dynamics in Pacific women’s literature in a decolonizing context of trans-Indigenous feminist theories. Māori author Patricia Grace, and Indigenous Australian writer and scholar Melissa Lucashenko center storytelling as a critical methodology in establishing Aboriginality as the central knowledge regime in their writing. Within the framework of a trans-Indigenous methodology, the present study is grounded on and engages with Indigenous feminist theories from the Pacific and beyond: A recognition of multiply situated knowledge and “herstories” establishes female connection to land, spirituality, and community, alongside experiences of colonial invasion and oppression, as key commonalities in Indigenous writing. Through storytelling, Grace and Lucashenko envision gender regimes that reflect Indigenous women’s complexity, as well as authority, positioning Indigenous Pacific women as active agents in confronting sexist patriarchal hegemony, and instrumental for creating balance in gender relations, family, community, and nation, amid complex processes of decolonization.
This article sets out to examine the way in which Indigenous trauma texts employ storytelling as ... more This article sets out to examine the way in which Indigenous trauma texts employ storytelling as discursive practice and convention to narrate the complex forces of collective and transgenerational traumata. An analysis of Tina Makereti's debut novel Where the Rēkohu Bone Sings (2014) will illustrate the way in which Indigenous storytelling is employed as a discursive practice as well as a narrative convention to convey and process Indigenous experiences of trauma. Examining trauma narratives within the limited analytic framework of traditional trauma theory remains unsatisfactory with regard to Indigenous texts that deal with the multiple-layered forms of collective and transgenerational trauma. Thus, while informed by literary trauma theory as well as postcolonial studies, my theoretical approach is first and foremost based on Indigenous theories and knowledges, which are crucial to better comprehend the representation and articulation of trauma in Indigenous narratives. Focus will be on examining the Indigenous tradition of storytelling as a narrative mode and convention for Indigenous trauma fiction. Visser (2015) persuasively argues that '[t]he nuanced exploration and conceptualization of the function of indigenous belief systems in the engagement with trauma would constitute a further necessary development in the project of achieving a fully decolonized trauma theory' (263). By engaging with Indigenous epistemologies with regard to storytelling in the analysis of Indigenous trauma narratives, this article hopes to contribute to the discussion.
This article sets the critical analysis of gender dynamics in Pacific women’s literature in a dec... more This article sets the critical analysis of gender dynamics in Pacific women’s literature in a decolonizing context of trans-Indigenous feminist theories. Māori author Patricia Grace, and Indigenous Australian writer and scholar Melissa Lucashenko center storytelling as a critical methodology in establishing Aboriginality as the central knowledge regime in their writing. Within the framework of a trans-Indigenous methodology, the present study is grounded on and engages with Indigenous feminist theories from the Pacific and beyond: A recognition of multiply situated knowledge and “herstories” establishes female connection to land, spirituality, and community, alongside experiences of colonial invasion and oppression, as key commonalities in Indigenous writing. Through storytelling, Grace and Lucashenko envision gender regimes that reflect Indigenous women’s complexity, as well as authority, positioning Indigenous Pacific women as active agents in confronting sexist patriarchal hegemo...
This article sets the critical analysis of gender dynamics in Pacific women’s literature in a dec... more This article sets the critical analysis of gender dynamics in Pacific women’s literature in a decolonizing context of trans-Indigenous feminist theories. Māori author Patricia Grace, and Indigenous Australian writer and scholar Melissa Lucashenko center storytelling as a critical methodology in establishing Aboriginality as the central knowledge regime in their writing. Within the framework of a trans-Indigenous methodology, the present study is grounded on and engages with Indigenous feminist theories from the Pacific and beyond: A recognition of multiply situated knowledge and “herstories” establishes female connection to land, spirituality, and community, alongside experiences of colonial invasion and oppression, as key commonalities in Indigenous writing. Through storytelling, Grace and Lucashenko envision gender regimes that reflect Indigenous women’s complexity, as well as authority, positioning Indigenous Pacific women as active agents in confronting sexist patriarchal hegemony, and instrumental for creating balance in gender relations, family, community, and nation, amid complex processes of decolonization.
This article sets out to examine the way in which Indigenous trauma texts employ storytelling as ... more This article sets out to examine the way in which Indigenous trauma texts employ storytelling as discursive practice and convention to narrate the complex forces of collective and transgenerational traumata. An analysis of Tina Makereti's debut novel Where the Rēkohu Bone Sings (2014) will illustrate the way in which Indigenous storytelling is employed as a discursive practice as well as a narrative convention to convey and process Indigenous experiences of trauma. Examining trauma narratives within the limited analytic framework of traditional trauma theory remains unsatisfactory with regard to Indigenous texts that deal with the multiple-layered forms of collective and transgenerational trauma. Thus, while informed by literary trauma theory as well as postcolonial studies, my theoretical approach is first and foremost based on Indigenous theories and knowledges, which are crucial to better comprehend the representation and articulation of trauma in Indigenous narratives. Focus will be on examining the Indigenous tradition of storytelling as a narrative mode and convention for Indigenous trauma fiction. Visser (2015) persuasively argues that '[t]he nuanced exploration and conceptualization of the function of indigenous belief systems in the engagement with trauma would constitute a further necessary development in the project of achieving a fully decolonized trauma theory' (263). By engaging with Indigenous epistemologies with regard to storytelling in the analysis of Indigenous trauma narratives, this article hopes to contribute to the discussion.
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