Conversations B2 – Week 11 Task

I feel that the best project I finished this year was my Lens project, at least in my eyes. The corresponding Powhiri concept was ‘Hakari’. Hakari is the final stage of the process, in which things are balanced, settled and resolved. It is the resolution and celebration of what has taken place.

My assignment was to take one of my previous studios and re-imagine it through the medium of photography. I eventually came to the conclusion that I was going to recreate my Turangawaewae project, taking various images of the city with a natural element within them, representing my transition from a rural background to the now man-made structural city. In my work, I worked with framing the images with a natural ‘halo’, attempting to capture a balanced relationship that really represents my experience in a natural environment and how that experience affects how I see the world I’m currently in. In light of this concept, I named my series “Vantage”.

When it comes to gender or indigeneity in my lens project, it is almost completely irrelevant, as my entire project is based around my own personal experiences of what I consider to be my home, and my view of the city as an environment. However, at a stretch, I could perhaps link the ideas of indigeneity from Linda Smith’s “Decolonising Methodologies” to how I see my home, and where I believe I feel that home is, however the main concept of indigenous in this reading is that “It is a term that internationalises the experiences, the issues and the struggles of some of the world’s colonised peoples.”, of which I am not. It is important to keep such ideas in mind, but it’s really only specific to work being created that affects, or is affected, by said ideas.

Tuhiwai Smith, Linda. Introduction. Decolonising methodologies – Research and indigenous peoples. London and New York – Zed Books, 2012, 1-18..pdf

Conversations B2 – Week 10 Task

I have never really given much thought to my cultural identity. When I was young, I was told I was a ‘kiwi kid’. My family supports the All Blacks (because rugby is important), we live on a farm in a rural area and our speech patterns could have been copy/pasted out of a Footrot Flats comic. I’ve always just assumed that I was your typical grassroots, small-town ‘Noo Zullander’, and never put any more effort into double checking that that’s exactly what I thought was. When the All Blacks lost to France in 2007 I was in equal uproar to my friends and family, and the horror I felt when I learned of the Christchurch earthquakes echoed along with the rest of the country. But did I ever stop to wonder why I felt such things? Did I ever look at myself and really feel like a New Zealander? My knowledge was limited to what I was told by my elders, and to what I experienced in my semi-sheltered life in a small rural town. It is only now that I have access to a whole country of stories, experiences and progressions, that I can really see myself in the context of Aotearoa, and understand my place in it. Now that I am aware of who I am, I can say that I still think of myself as a New Zealander, but my connections to my country have meaning now. Now when I watch the All Blacks destroy Aussie, I know and understand why I feel proud. I know why I love the country I live in. I know why I feel at home.

Scanned from: Panocha, Rangihiroa. Maori Art: History, Architecture, Landscape & Theory. New Zealand, David Bateman, 15 June 2015.

Conversations B2 – Week 9 Task

21st Century Powhiri

One of the themes/ideas that Dick Whyte talked about during the lecture was stereotypes in New Zealand. He explained that the majority of media in New Zealand, even after the 70s (a time completely dominated by Pakeha control), is still influenced by the ideas and stereotypes that Pakeha have constructed. One of the ‘new racism’ stereotypes is the “radical political activist” Maori; the idea that Maori people, especially young men, are unlawful and deviant, paying no heed to the ‘civilised laws’ that govern New Zealand. Wall explains in her article that “The stereotype of radical political activist has been generated through the resurrection and rehashing of a number o f racial narratives which have been in circulation in Aotearoa/New Zealand.” (43)

Wall, Melanie (1997). Stereotypical Constructions of the Maori ‘Race’ in the Media.

Higgins, Rawinia & John C. Moorfield (2004). Ngā tikanga o te marae.

Conversations B2 – Week 8 Task

This image is a comment on the problem of child poverty in New Zealand, using humor to make a stab at the idea that no one has anything when they are born, therefore they are completely reliant on the people around them to care for them, thus their financial situation is beyond their control for most of their life. There is “…evidence that childhood disadvantage increases the chances of poor outcomes later in life. One of the most common aspects of childhood disadvantage is low family income and there is good evidence of the negative impact on future outcomes…” (Perry, Bryan 19). As mentioned in the lecture, child poverty has become a much more relevant problem in New Zealand, becoming differentiated to ‘standard’ poverty.

Perry, Bryan. “Working for Families: The impact on child poverty.” Social Policy Journal of New Zealand (2004): 19-54.