scholarly journals Signifier of Kiwi Identity

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 38-64
Author(s):  
Lindsay Neill ◽  
Marilyn Waring
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Knowledge Base ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Important Link ◽  
New Information ◽  
Origin Myths

Contested myths of origin surround one of New Zealand’s best-loved cultural icons, or ‘kiwiana’: a pull-along children’s toy called the Buzzy Bee. This paper clarifies those domains by presenting new information gleaned from Betty Schlesinger, widow of the bee’s inventor. Clarification is important because the Buzzy Bee is, as kiwiana, a material item strongly associated with Kiwi identity. As a Māori word, ‘Kiwi’ is a common, often self-ascribed, term identifying people from Aotearoa New Zealand. In clarifying the Buzzy Bee’s history, this paper adds new information to the knowledge base of what it means to be Kiwi. That knowledge base is enhanced, because this paper notes that the Buzzy Bee was invented and first manufactured here in New Zealand by Betty Schlesinger’s husband Maurice Schlesinger. Betty Schlesinger’s account contrasts more popular and well-known origin myths that have served to cloud the Bee’s definitive history. In clarifying the Buzzy Bee’s genesis using Betty Schlesinger’s narrative, this paper also emphasises the important link between identity, materiality and national identity.

scholarly journals Pākehā Practice: Music and National Identity in Postcolonial Aotearoa/New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Liam Prince
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Cultural Issues ◽  
Cultural Economic ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Musical Traditions ◽  
American Popular Music

<p>National discourses specific to Aotearoa/New Zealand — for example, biculturalism, which reimagines Māori-Pākehā relations as a partnership based on the Treaty of Waitangi — help to construct, express, and articulate connections between music and New Zealand identity. Yet unquestioned nationalisms — however benign or ‘official’ they seem — can marginalize some ways of being, knowing, organizing, and music-making, through their capacity to advance and reinforce undisclosed social values and political agendas. In this way, nationalism often disguises the consequences of those values and agendas. This thesis demonstrates how, by unproblematically invoking nationalisms for various purposes, significant New Zealand music-related institutions inadvertently reproduce Eurocentric national identity narratives which overlook the social, cultural, economic and political inequities of Aotearoa/NZ’s postcolonial present. Such narratives normalize conceptions of ‘New Zealand music’ dominated by historic and evolving cultural and economic connections between New Zealand society and the broader postcolonial Anglosphere. Consequently, identifications of ‘New Zealand’ culture and music often reflect dominant Pākehā norms, against which other musical traditions are contrasted.  Several prominent ‘national’ institutions involved with music are examined through three cases studies. The first considers how state-supported music policies and agencies construct and legitimize economic, artistic and democratic ideologies as national values, and explores the consequences of a frequent failure to distinguish between a cultural identity, based on dominant Pākehā norms and values, and a culturally plural civic-based national identity. The second case study examines events during and surrounding two major music awards ceremonies, the Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards and the Silver Scroll Awards, showing how these ceremonies construct and reinforce a prestige hierarchy of ‘New Zealand music’ in which Anglo-American popular music styles are privileged over other musical expressions. The consequences for cultural representation in relation to New Zealand identity are considered. The final case study analyses the New Zealand popular music heritage presented at Auckland Museum’s exhibition, Volume: Making Music in Aotearoa. Volume’s displays and stories, contextualized and informed by Auckland Museum and prominent entities in New Zealand’s music industry, are shown to reinforce a dominant New Zealand music ‘Kiwiana’, neglecting divergent cultural perspectives and political positions.  The thesis draws on comparative analyses of qualitative interviews conducted by the author, documents and reports, press media and journalism, audiovisual broadcasts and recordings, promotional material and museum visits. These primary materials are contextualized in wider literatures — particularly on nationalism, postcolonialism and music — to provide critical perspectives on historic social, political and cultural issues regarding New Zealand national identity and its relationship to music.</p>

scholarly journals Meaning in Landscape Architecture: Negotiating Identity in a Landscape of Local and National Significance

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Marita Hunt
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Landscape Architecture ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Urban Site ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Architectural Form ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand

<p>This thesis develops a landscape architectural approach to the design of meaning in locally and nationally significant spaces. It begins with an emerging contemporary trend: nationally significant sites that are ignored and reduced in importance by the changing, fluid urban landscapes that surround them. Adelaide Road, in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, is the site of Government House, the National War Memorial and the Basin reserve. These three nationally significant colonial icons suffer from lack of connection to their urban context, and thus this site is used as design case study. The thesis first develops a position on the expression of meaning through architectural form, particularly the meaning of national identity in capital cities. The expression of meaning in architecture is hindered by problems to do with the cultural context the sites are found within. Cultural shifts quickly move on from original designed meaning, leaving only culturally ingrained meaning. For nationally significant sites to remain relevant they need to become used, active parts of the urban landscape, so that layers of meaning and identity can accumulate within them. To situate the thesis in the context of Aotearoa-New Zealand, cultural traditions to do with sense of belonging to the landscape are used to establish a base set of values on which to base a design methodology. Landscape, particularly the natural landscape, has become a cliché expression of New Zealand national identity, to the detriment of urban landscapes. The design methodology uses landscape architecture theory to draw together Māori and Pākehā landscape values and apply them to the complex problems of an urban site. The design outcome frames the re-connection of Government House, the War Memorial and the Basin Reserve to the urban landscape within the cultural context of Aotearoa-New Zealand.</p>

scholarly journals Meaning in Landscape Architecture: Negotiating Identity in a Landscape of Local and National Significance

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Marita Hunt
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Landscape Architecture ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Urban Site ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Architectural Form ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand

<p>This thesis develops a landscape architectural approach to the design of meaning in locally and nationally significant spaces. It begins with an emerging contemporary trend: nationally significant sites that are ignored and reduced in importance by the changing, fluid urban landscapes that surround them. Adelaide Road, in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, is the site of Government House, the National War Memorial and the Basin reserve. These three nationally significant colonial icons suffer from lack of connection to their urban context, and thus this site is used as design case study. The thesis first develops a position on the expression of meaning through architectural form, particularly the meaning of national identity in capital cities. The expression of meaning in architecture is hindered by problems to do with the cultural context the sites are found within. Cultural shifts quickly move on from original designed meaning, leaving only culturally ingrained meaning. For nationally significant sites to remain relevant they need to become used, active parts of the urban landscape, so that layers of meaning and identity can accumulate within them. To situate the thesis in the context of Aotearoa-New Zealand, cultural traditions to do with sense of belonging to the landscape are used to establish a base set of values on which to base a design methodology. Landscape, particularly the natural landscape, has become a cliché expression of New Zealand national identity, to the detriment of urban landscapes. The design methodology uses landscape architecture theory to draw together Māori and Pākehā landscape values and apply them to the complex problems of an urban site. The design outcome frames the re-connection of Government House, the War Memorial and the Basin Reserve to the urban landscape within the cultural context of Aotearoa-New Zealand.</p>

scholarly journals Pākehā Practice: Music and National Identity in Postcolonial Aotearoa/New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Liam Prince
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Cultural Issues ◽  
Cultural Economic ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Musical Traditions ◽  
American Popular Music

<p>National discourses specific to Aotearoa/New Zealand — for example, biculturalism, which reimagines Māori-Pākehā relations as a partnership based on the Treaty of Waitangi — help to construct, express, and articulate connections between music and New Zealand identity. Yet unquestioned nationalisms — however benign or ‘official’ they seem — can marginalize some ways of being, knowing, organizing, and music-making, through their capacity to advance and reinforce undisclosed social values and political agendas. In this way, nationalism often disguises the consequences of those values and agendas. This thesis demonstrates how, by unproblematically invoking nationalisms for various purposes, significant New Zealand music-related institutions inadvertently reproduce Eurocentric national identity narratives which overlook the social, cultural, economic and political inequities of Aotearoa/NZ’s postcolonial present. Such narratives normalize conceptions of ‘New Zealand music’ dominated by historic and evolving cultural and economic connections between New Zealand society and the broader postcolonial Anglosphere. Consequently, identifications of ‘New Zealand’ culture and music often reflect dominant Pākehā norms, against which other musical traditions are contrasted.  Several prominent ‘national’ institutions involved with music are examined through three cases studies. The first considers how state-supported music policies and agencies construct and legitimize economic, artistic and democratic ideologies as national values, and explores the consequences of a frequent failure to distinguish between a cultural identity, based on dominant Pākehā norms and values, and a culturally plural civic-based national identity. The second case study examines events during and surrounding two major music awards ceremonies, the Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards and the Silver Scroll Awards, showing how these ceremonies construct and reinforce a prestige hierarchy of ‘New Zealand music’ in which Anglo-American popular music styles are privileged over other musical expressions. The consequences for cultural representation in relation to New Zealand identity are considered. The final case study analyses the New Zealand popular music heritage presented at Auckland Museum’s exhibition, Volume: Making Music in Aotearoa. Volume’s displays and stories, contextualized and informed by Auckland Museum and prominent entities in New Zealand’s music industry, are shown to reinforce a dominant New Zealand music ‘Kiwiana’, neglecting divergent cultural perspectives and political positions.  The thesis draws on comparative analyses of qualitative interviews conducted by the author, documents and reports, press media and journalism, audiovisual broadcasts and recordings, promotional material and museum visits. These primary materials are contextualized in wider literatures — particularly on nationalism, postcolonialism and music — to provide critical perspectives on historic social, political and cultural issues regarding New Zealand national identity and its relationship to music.</p>

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