scholarly journals "Thank you, your English is very good also": Asian Panethnicity and its Performance in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Sophia Edwards
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Identity Work ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Ethnographic Approach ◽  
Asian Identity ◽  
Creative Artists ◽  
Asian People ◽  
Diverse Groups

<p>Existing studies suggest that Asian panethnicity is the political mobilisation of diverse groups of people under a new name, to oppose racism and discrimination. Asian panethnicity is shaped by social forces, including those that exclude. As such, it is inherently political. However, it is limiting to think of it only as a kind of intentional, collective action bent towards achieving a predetermined group goal. This thesis expands this understanding of panethnicity, by considering how “Asiannness” is experienced on an intersubjective level and asks what “Asian” means to and for the Asian individual.  Lingering Orientalism perpetuates a sense of Asian people as not quite belonging in the West. Though by now cliché, this narrative of non-belonging continues to determine ideas of Asianness and set the parameters of appropriate Asian behaviour. But, this non-belonging is also the site in and from which Asian actors make their own meanings and seek their own kind of situated belonging. This thesis takes an autoethnographic and ethnographic approach to field sites in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand to observe some of the ways Asian identity is formed. It is inevitable that transnational processes contribute to this identity work, but these global processes are also subsumed by localised structures and contexts.  Drawing from participant observation with social and community groups, and interviews with creative artists, writers, administrators, community workers and activists addressing the question of what it means to be Asian, I argue that Asian panethnicity is constituted by “doing”. It is made up of different acts, repeated over time, and in different settings. As a product of relationships between externally imposed, in group enforced, and self-made conceptions of “Asianness”, Asian panethnicity is both performative and performed. This thesis presents scenarios in which these performances and presentations of the Asian self take place. In considering some of the possible contexts and conventions that give rise to the performative act/s of being Asian, I argue that being Asian is a creative, collaborative, ongoing endeavour. It is a means by which to accomplish belonging in the world.</p>

scholarly journals "Thank you, your English is very good also": Asian Panethnicity and its Performance in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Sophia Edwards
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Identity Work ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Ethnographic Approach ◽  
Asian Identity ◽  
Creative Artists ◽  
Asian People ◽  
Diverse Groups

<p>Existing studies suggest that Asian panethnicity is the political mobilisation of diverse groups of people under a new name, to oppose racism and discrimination. Asian panethnicity is shaped by social forces, including those that exclude. As such, it is inherently political. However, it is limiting to think of it only as a kind of intentional, collective action bent towards achieving a predetermined group goal. This thesis expands this understanding of panethnicity, by considering how “Asiannness” is experienced on an intersubjective level and asks what “Asian” means to and for the Asian individual.  Lingering Orientalism perpetuates a sense of Asian people as not quite belonging in the West. Though by now cliché, this narrative of non-belonging continues to determine ideas of Asianness and set the parameters of appropriate Asian behaviour. But, this non-belonging is also the site in and from which Asian actors make their own meanings and seek their own kind of situated belonging. This thesis takes an autoethnographic and ethnographic approach to field sites in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand to observe some of the ways Asian identity is formed. It is inevitable that transnational processes contribute to this identity work, but these global processes are also subsumed by localised structures and contexts.  Drawing from participant observation with social and community groups, and interviews with creative artists, writers, administrators, community workers and activists addressing the question of what it means to be Asian, I argue that Asian panethnicity is constituted by “doing”. It is made up of different acts, repeated over time, and in different settings. As a product of relationships between externally imposed, in group enforced, and self-made conceptions of “Asianness”, Asian panethnicity is both performative and performed. This thesis presents scenarios in which these performances and presentations of the Asian self take place. In considering some of the possible contexts and conventions that give rise to the performative act/s of being Asian, I argue that being Asian is a creative, collaborative, ongoing endeavour. It is a means by which to accomplish belonging in the world.</p>

scholarly journals ‘Transnational Identities of the Global South Asian Diaspora in Australia, Canada, Aotearoa New Zealand, and South Africa, 1900s-1940s’

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-77
Author(s):  
Jatinder Mann ◽  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Predominantly White ◽  
South Asian ◽  
South Asian Diaspora ◽  
Transnational Identities ◽  
Asian Diaspora ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Asian Identity ◽  
Research Questions

This article addresses two key research questions: 1. Was the rhetoric about the equality of all British subjects adopted by South Asian migrants in the British Empire’s self-governing Dominions in the first half of the twentieth century? and 2. Did the experience of living in predominantly white countries encourage migrants from the Punjab and other regions in South Asia to adopt a common pan-South Asian identity? It explores these two research questions with each of the four countries of the focus of this article in turn, before making some comparisons.

scholarly journals Māori Performing Arts and the Weaving Together of Local, National and International Communities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Jonathon Avery
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Performing Arts ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
School Of Music ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Art Form ◽  
Performance Context ◽  
And Performance

<p>Māori performing arts provides a valuable contribution to Aotearoa New Zealand society. Māori performing arts has an intrinsic link to Māori culture and is used to connect 1) Māori who are disengaged from iwi/hapu/whanau, as well as 2) non-Māori, in New Zealand and around the world with Māori culture. Performance genres such as waiata-a-ringa, haka and mōteatea contain a body of knowledge that communicate Māori ways of being and doing and provide participants with an opportunity to become connected to a culturally literate and informed community. Using ethnographic techniques of participant observation, interviews and performance, this thesis examines the experiences of individuals who engage with Māori performing arts and the meaning they attribute to their engagement with the art form. Drawing on contemporary ideas of community and meaning, this thesis also investigates how Māori performing arts builds and strengthens relationships and whanaungatanga by connecting participants to local, national and international Aotearoa New Zealand communities. This thesis draws on two contexts in Wellington where people engage with Māori performing arts - The Ngāti Pōneke Young Māori Club at Pipitea marae and Te Kōkī New Zealand School of Music. Along with exploring two Māori performance context in detail, this these explores how Māori performing arts is used as a platform to educate participants about Māori knowledge, language and culture while also discussing how Māori performing arts is used to symbolise and represent Aotearoa New Zealand nationally and internationally.</p>

scholarly journals A life lived on the corner

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Bronwyn Jewell McGovern
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Medical Intervention ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Street Life ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Street People ◽  
Street Corner

<p>This thesis explores the everyday life of Brother, a well-known street dweller and local identity, who lives everyday life on a busy street corner in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. Brother’s way of doing ‘being ordinary’ attracts strong public curiosity, media interest, and monitoring by informal and formal social control mechanisms, including medical intervention. This research provides a comprehensive account of what can happen to those at the margins who dare, or are impelled, to do things differently. My research is inspired by the longstanding tradition of street corner sociology, and grounded within the sociology of everyday life orientation. My street ethnography involved participant observation over a three-and-a-half year period. In that time, I observed Brother and other street people, capturing the depth and nuanced complexities of a life lived in the open. Central to this thesis is an examination of the ways in which wider social structures and institutions bear upon the local micro-setting, in particular how classification processes act to ‘make, remake, and unmake’ people. Three core concepts of space, body, and social interaction are explored to examine, through the situatedness of everyday talk and social action, how social meanings are locally produced and understood. I argue that by developing spatial, bodily, and interactional methods, Brother has established organisational and social capacities, and lines of conduct, that are firmly founded in autonomous actions. Through his rejection of ascribed ‘homeless’ membership and his clear embracement of a street lifestyle, Brother’s street life is shown to subvert and trouble normative understandings, while engendering and maintaining a lived sense of home in the city he calls his whare [house]. My research contributes an Aotearoa New Zealand perspective to the international sociological street corner landscape, and provides a Wellington perspective to the emerging domestic literature on street life. More broadly, my study aims to stimulate critical sociological reflection regarding different modes of being and belonging in the world and how we, as a society, respond to this.</p>

scholarly journals Voices in the Reo: Music, Community and Membership in a Rātana Brass Band

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Helen Thomas
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Community Context ◽  
Political Movement ◽  
Brass Bands ◽  
Brass Band ◽  
Spiritual Community ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Ethnographic Approach ◽  
Music Community ◽  
One Year

<p>This study explores the brass bands of the Rātana community. Te Hāhi Rātana (the Rātana Church) is a Māori Christian church based in Aotearoa New Zealand. Between 1932 and 1984 Te Hāhi Rātana established seven brass bands, which today constitute an amateur brass movement with over eighty years of history and several hundred active band members around the country. Rātana brass bands are widely recognised as emblematic of the Rātana Church and associated political movement, yet the bands gain only passing mention in New Zealand music histories and reference works. This thesis presents the first in-depth research about Rātana brass bands.  Based on fieldwork conducted over a one-year period, this thesis investigates Rātana brass banding in its community context. Taking a contemporary ethnographic approach, I explore aspects of symbolism, performance and membership, discussing some of the localised meanings and functions of the brass band in the Rātana context. The research presented in the thesis centred around interviews and interactions with members of one of seven Rātana brass bands, whose voices I incorporate into the text. Observations of the band members playing in church and marae contexts form the basis for narrative ethnographic descriptions and interpretive discussion. Drawing on ‘insider notions’ of community and banding, such as the idea of whānau (family), I explore the Rātana community and faith through the brass bands. This study considers some of the ways in which brass band music serves to bind and sustain the musical collectivities of the bands themselves, and the large, geographically spread, spiritual community of which they are a part.</p>

Friends tell it like it is: Therapy culture, postfeminism and friendships between women

2021 ◽  
pp. 136754942110575
Author(s):  
Maree Martinussen ◽  
Margaret Wetherell
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Identity Work ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Cultural Resources ◽  
Qualitative Investigation ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Creative Identity ◽  
Practice Approach ◽  
Using Data

Feminist cultural studies researchers have produced a rich body of work showing how postfeminism and therapy cultures pervade a range of media. However, receiving less attention are questions of exactly how the neoliberal technologies of self implicated in these two cultural persuasions ‘land’, and are practised in everyday life. In this article, we forward an identity practice approach to understand the interrelated cultures of therapy and postfeminism using data from a qualitative investigation of women’s friendships in Aotearoa New Zealand. We are interested in how the cultural resources concerning postfeminism and the ‘psy complex’ are used flexibly within friendship interactions in concert with other identities, such as national identities and caring identities. Overall, aligning with previous feminist analyses of media artefacts, we find that as postfeminist and therapeutic subjectivity-making entwine with the moral orders of women’s friendships, women carry out their self-surveillance and self-transformation work collaboratively. Yet, remaining attentive to how women tailor cultural resources in their creative identity work leads us to a more hopeful reading. We suggest that the confidence gained by women through their therapised friendships should also be acknowledged for its nourishing qualities.

scholarly journals Premature Personhoods In A Neonatal Intensive Care Unit In Aotearoa New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Zoe Poppelwell
Keyword(s):  
Intensive Care Unit ◽  
Intensive Care ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit ◽  
Neonatal Intensive Care ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Ethnographic Interviews ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
One Year

<p>The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) provides medical care for some of the most unwell newborns, including those born premature. Infants born prior to 28 completed weeks gestation, classified as extremely premature, often require long admissions and close management. These infants, and those who care for them, occupy a unique position of flux. The extremely premature body is not only a locus for clinical dialogue on the reach of biomedicine, but also for wider debates over the personhood of those born at the edge of viability. This thesis is an ethnographic account of some of the ways in which neonatal personhood was strategically articulated in the NICU at various points of the infant’s stay. These articulations, neither contingent nor dependent on the infant’s clinical position, illustrate a multiplicity of relational personhoods that exist alongside, and sometimes at tension with, individualised dynamics of care and emotion between infants, parents, and staff. I conducted over one year of ethnographic fieldwork, including six months of intensive participant observation at a single urban unit, and over 50 ethnographic interviews across New Zealand with a variety of individuals, such as NICU parents and staff. A portion of this thesis is also comprised of autoethnographic vignettes that account for my own neonatal journey and position in the field.</p>

scholarly journals Creating Kin, Remaking Kinship: An Exploration of Queer Experiences of Motherhood in Aotearoa New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Hayley Aikman
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Assisted Reproductive Technologies ◽  
Nuclear Family ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Reproductive Technologies ◽  
Social Unit ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Family Narratives ◽  
Depth Interviews

<p>Kinship norms in Aotearoa New Zealand are inherently heteronormative, constructed out of the settler colonial ideal that a heterosexual couple with children in a nuclear family are the ultimate social unit. This thesis outlines queer experiences of motherhood given this context, highlighting the ways queer people engage with family narratives that implicitly exclude them. By drawing on the stories of six queer individuals, I trace these engagements through the adoption and foster system, usage of assisted reproductive technologies, and finding a sense of belonging and community. In each of these contexts, my participants subvert, reject, and reproduce, heteronormative understandings of family. These accounts primarily draw from in-depth interviews, as well as one instance of participant observation. I analyse the actions of my participants in relationship to LGBTQ+ political stances, examining whether they represent positive progress, or assimilation into heteronormativity. I argue that regardless of political intent, the engagements my participants make with family norms prove the malleability of kinship ideology. Through relating this to the construction of family narratives in Aotearoa New Zealand by settler colonial action, I emphasise that kinship norms are not static nor universal. This thesis posits that if kinship ideology is not naturally arising, or permanent, it has the potential to be remade more inclusively in the future.</p>

scholarly journals Let’s Dig Down Deep: A Philosophical Look at Social Studies Education in New Zealand

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiona Beals
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Structural Analysis ◽  
Social Studies ◽  
Social Studies Education ◽  
Ministry Of Education ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Multiple Dimensions ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Postmodern Philosophy ◽  
Diverse Groups

Post-structural analysis is a valuable tool for offering different perspectives, highlighting possible disparities, and suggesting new ways forward. This paper applies a post-structural analysis to social studies education and Social Studies in the New Zealand Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 1997). The analysis reveals that social studies education restricts many diverse groups in Aotearoa/New Zealand from identification as “New Zealand citizens” through a focus on “citizenship” education and a singular “national identity”. It is argued that social studies education should move into the postmodern allowing for teachers and students to think across multiple dimensions that recognise diversity and reflect a postmodern philosophy.

scholarly journals Constructing the Identities of Place: An Exploration of Māori and Archaeological Heritage Practices in Aotearoa New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Elizabeth Dale Pishief
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Great Depth ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Heritage Management ◽  
Refined Theory ◽  
Archaeological Heritage ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Heritage Studies

<p>This thesis examines a problem in current heritage practice, namely, the statutory management of archaeological sites separately from other heritage places with the consequent loss of many sites of importance to Māori. It explores places and the different meanings and practices of heritage constructed around them by archaeologists and Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand where such questions have not been critically examined in great depth. The study responds to this gap in the literature by setting out to develop a theory of heritage practice that enables the effective translation of peoples' heritage aspirations into a workable model of heritage management in place of the current framework. The research has used an interdisciplinary theoretical framework developed from the literature of heritage studies and related fields, which builds on Laurajane Smith's work on archaeology and the authorised heritage discourse, but also includes writing on governmentality, phenomenology, kinaesthesia, agency, and material culture. The research design employed a qualitative, interpretivist methodology. Discourse analysis of the evidence gathered from secondary sources, including legislation and policy; and an ethnography of current professional practice in the form of interviews and participant observation, all produced rich findings about heritage, place and practice that are fundamental to understanding the complex issues examined in this study. The main finding that emerges from the research is a refined theory of heritage. I argue that heritage is comprised of three tangible elements: person, performance and place, which create what Māori respondents refer to as the 'Connect', a contemporary Māori heritage practice related to customary concepts. Heritage is the Connect. The research has led to the formulation of a more appropriate trans-cultural, bi-national governance model of heritage. As one of the first sustained pieces of critical analysis of heritage management in New Zealand, this thesis thereby makes a significant academic contribution to critical heritage studies and the history, theory and practice of heritage management in this, and other post-settler nations.</p>

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