Pakeha identity has long been problematic, caught in a straddling stance between European co-ordinates of origin, and life in Aotearoa. This has been particularly evident over the last three decades: with the rise of tino rangatiratanga, Pakeha identity has undergone something of a crisis. Group identity, especially in such periods of crisis, requires �narratives� that re-imagine being and belonging. Poetry by Pakeha both displays the problem with identity at the cross cultural threshold between Maori and Pakeha, asking � what happens when Pakeha engage cross-culturally with te ao Maori, appropriating te reo Maori and drawing on Maoritanga, to re-vision and reconfigure identity? And how does such an approach shape the imagining of Pakeha identity?�
I study, in parallel, the cross-cultural poetry of James K. Baxter and Glen Colquhoun in relation to these questions. Borrowing a conceptual metaphor from Colin McCahon, I examine these cross-cultural poems in detail as �load-bearing structures�. I pay particular attention to the way in which, in purpose, design and materials, they function to re-imagine Pakeha identity in reciprocal relationship with te ao Maori. Aware of the problems of culture-crossing, at the outset I establish a historical and interpretive framework for the poetry. Furthermore, I discuss the question of appropriation, arguing for an ethical distinction between appropriation and misappropriation based on a cross-cultural relationship of faithful and reciprocal engagement.
I conclude that Baxter and Colquhoun are singular and radical in their reconfiguration of Pakeha identity. Baxter embraces te ao Maori in a direct challenge to Pakeha nationalism, prescribing the necessary corrective of the tuakana-teina dynamic to Pakeha identity and its relationship with te ao Maori. Writing after the Maori renaissance, Glenn Colquhoun irreverently opens up a further reconfiguration of cross-cultural relationship, pushing both Maori and Pakeha beyond a cultural dichotomy towards a mutually defining complementarity. Both place themselves on the cultural threshold of language, embracing the tensions of the cross-cultural scenario. The result is cross-cultural poetry, load-bearing structures that manifest the tension and ambivalence of the settler culture�s straddling identity, enacting what it is to be Pakeha.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/266409 |
| Date | January 2003 |
| Creators | Dennison, John Sebastian, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Otago. Department of English |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://policy01.otago.ac.nz/policies/FMPro?-db=policies.fm&-format=viewpolicy.html&-lay=viewpolicy&-sortfield=Title&Type=Academic&-recid=33025&-find), Copyright John Sebastian Dennison |
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