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    Keeping taonga warm : Aotearoa New Zealand's museums and Maori tapu material : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Anthropology, Palmerston North, Social Anthropology Programme, School of Global Studies, Massey University
    (Massey University, 2003) Park, Marilyn
    This thesis is an interpretative viewpoint from a Aotearoa New Zealand tauiwi, of the importance of the spiritual meaning of taonga and their related concepts of tapu, mana and wairua to Maori, both in the past and today. It is concerned primarily with how taonga and their tapu nature have been addressed by Aotearoa New Zealand's museums, historically and contemporarily, and by the anthropologists and archaeologists and ethnologists working within them. While related issues include all indigenous secret and sacred material, both tangible and intangible, I am primarily interested in how museum professionals, expecially anthropologists and archaeologists working within New Zealand Museums, have incorporated the concept of tapu into their engagement with Maori taonga, and how they resolve their own beliefs with those of Maori. I am specifically concerned with how Maori taonga are kept spiritually ' warm,' by non-Maori museum personnel concerned with their physical care. This involves an analysis of museum traditions and past historical influences now affecting Aotearoa New Zealand today. This discussion begins with an explanation of the author's ontological viewpoint and reasons for writing this, and sets the terms of reference for the following discussions. Chapter One examines of the meaning of tapu, taonga and their related concepts, the way in which early writers and ethnologists have dealt with this subject historically, and the impact that this had on the current museological climate as well as interpretations by current writers including Maori and anthropologists. Chapter Two shows how scientific interests took precedence over Maori tapu concerns in early museum practice, both in collecting habits, display and in the interpretation of Maori tikanga, by ethnologists and museum management. Chapter Three discusses the recent changes in the management of some Aotearoa New Zealand's museums, the effect of professional guidelines and specific pieces of legislation on both Maori and museums, nationally and internationally. Recent changes include bicultural management within some museum management structures, iwi liaison committees within others, and current Maori initiatives in respect to the management of koiwi tangata. Chapter Four examines the impact that the changing attitudes towards Maori issues by non-Maori staff have had in Aotearoa New Zealand's Museums, regarding Maori access to taonga, the handling of taonga by non-museum staff, conservation issues and what the situation is today and where it is going. In the Conclusion I argue that, rather than a growth in understanding of Maori concerns regarding the care of and access to taonga held in Aotearoa New Zealand's museums, and of their tapu regulations, and the implications of these to the current well-being of specific iwi, a process of 'managerialization' of tapu concerns has been instigated in all major museums in Aotearoa New Zealand, and with some variations, within some other smaller ones. This has resulted in the decision making passing into the hands of iwi or joint management committees, whereby individual curators, collection managers and ethnologists no longer need to understand these issues deeply. Finally, I emphasise that only museums who actively pursue a co-operative relationship with their local iwi or marae will be visited by the local Maori community and continue to be allowed to continue to care for these important links from the past with the Maori of today. This should involve a repatriation of stolen taonga, koiwi tangata and mokomokai and retraining of museum staff in tikanga and Maori issues. It is not enough to 'pass the buck' and ignore the issues involved.
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    Colonial textile culture in mid-nineteenth century Aotearoa New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2020) McKergow, Fiona Mary
    Historians are increasingly paying attention to the intersections between objects, people and places as an aspect of the social and cultural histories of settler colonial societies. This thesis investigates selected textiles of British migrant and settler women in Aotearoa New Zealand as an element of what is defined here as ‘colonial textile culture’. It draws on the collections of mid-nineteenth century clothing and textiles held at two provincial museums in the lower North Island of New Zealand: Te Manawa Museum of Art, Science and History, in Palmerston North, and Whanganui Regional Museum, in Whanganui. Colonial textile culture is examined through six surviving objects associated with migrant women of English, Irish and Scottish ethnic origin. These are presented as part of a wider re-evaluation of textiles in colonial cultural history. A set of journals, a mourning sampler and a workbox allow insights into the more personal aspects of textile culture, while a silk wedding dress, a battle flag and a straw bonnet reflect its more public dimensions. Many of these are revealed to be highly emotional objects, in addition to their sensory dimensions, that were essential to the making of relationships, identities and experiences. The concept of colonial textile culture encapsulates the ways in which textiles in mid-nineteenth century Aotearoa New Zealand variously created and sustained family memories; contested and reinforced notions of social class; related to both feminine and masculine identities; and served as a site of interaction between British migrant and settler women and Māori communities. Colonial textile culture was also a source of commercial opportunity for some women. Finally, it was part of a wider circulation of commodities, ideas and practices throughout the British Empire that provided an underpinning to the extension of settler colonialism.
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    The quarry : an exegesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of PhD Fine Arts at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2019) Bauer, Susanna
    This creative practice research proposes a fictional archaeology as a conceptually and methodologically distinct mode of inquiry into the traces of human engagement with the material world, and as an exploration of alternative, non-linear notions of temporality. The research is situated within a contemporary context, one characterised by its heavily mediated environment and associated shifting experiences of materiality, space and temporality, which linear, chronological narratives seem increasingly inadequate to capture. An archaeological imagination, following Michael Shanks, captures a ‘sensibility’ towards material traces, that is applicable across disciplines. It becomes articulated in this research through a material encounter based on physical proximity and a spatial articulation of time.¹ Fictionality, besides indicating the shift of archaeology into art practice, situates this inquiry within a fictional realm, in distinction from other projects anchored in actual archaeological objects and sites. Fictionality further designates an affinity with narrative, as a meaning-making connectivity, which this research explores in non-linear ways, through an emphasis on transformations of material traces. This affinity becomes also articulated through a conversation with Max Frisch’s novel Man in the Holocene (1979), and interspersed biographical notes, that accompany this research, and which tether the fictional and abstract character of the project to the particularity of individual narratives. The structural configuration of the exegesis is aligned with the processual, interweaving unfolding of the creative practice. The project sets out to construct traces referencing architectural remnants, artefacts, inscriptions and fossils, through art processes that employ found materials, model assemblages and spray-painting, combined with photography, video and animation. The research employs a mode of material thinking, which indicates a practical and conceptual development based in processuality, and a direct engagement with materials. Transformational processes form the methodological centre of this project; initiated through material thinking, they are the main strategy by which a non-linear temporal journey of material traces is articulated in the practical work. These transformations generate pathways across media and dimensions resulting in a suite of art works with different material states, that are indexically linked, but resist direct, linear comparability—they are instead suggestive of a connectivity beyond chronological sequentiality. A selection of material outcomes of this research has been presented in an installation titled The Quarry, at Toi Pōneke Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand, which is also discussed in this document. ¹Michael Shanks, The Archaeological Imagination (Walnut Creek, Calif: Left Coast Press, 2012).
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    This domestic sublime : an exegesis in partial fulfilment of a Doctor of Philosophy in Creative Arts, College of Creative Arts, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2019) Lundy, Alison
    ‘My sculptural work starts with the materials, with a moment when matter, materials, objects or ‘things’, present a discrepancy, a paradox that contradicts my assumptions of truth or knowledge. In this case my work is a sculptural response to death, an interrogation of the forceful affect of the debris found at home, after my mother died.’ ‘This Domestic Sublime’, is a research project that is presented in two parts: a creative body of work, that is an installation consisting of 200 sculptural elements and a supporting thesis. The creative body of work conveys through material paradox an apprehension of mortality. In so doing, the installation contributes to the discussion of the sublime in art. The sculptural elements included in the body of work are made from debris found on a semi-rural site in Pohangina, New Zealand. These elements range in size from small egg shapes to the size of a garbage bin. The materials are preserved in resin, thus heightening the textural and visual qualities and the affects of attraction and repulsion of the sculptural elements. The final installation of the sculptural work invites a visceral engagement with the materials and mortality. The work is apprised through a theoretical lens that balances the concept of the sublime with a contemporary understanding of materiality and the domestic space, a space that is aligned with feminine experience. Mortality is framed by the material research, processes and experiments and is presented by the poetic contradictions of debris and matter that made a connection with my mother, who had passed away. This creative practice and theoretical exploration contributes to the discussion of the sublime in art, by addressing the unique poetic and material paradoxes of ‘this domestic sublime’.
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    Constructing identity : collecting Oceanic art/artefacts in New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Museum Studies at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2002) Evans, Rose
    This study is concerned with the collection of historic and contemporary Oceanic art forms by private collectors in New Zealand. Exploration into a recent increase in both market promotion and private collectors incorporating Oceanic art forms into their contemporary fine art collections is analysed in this research. The study sits within a body of international research into motivations behind collector behaviour and the relationship between art and artefact, yet also exists within the specific local context of New Zealand as a post colonial settler society. The objective of the study is to use qualitative methodology to interview a small sample of five case study collectors. These collectors can be positioned in an art/artefact continuum. One dealer, identified by three of the case study collectors, was interviewed to examine the complex relationship between dealer and private collectors of Oceanic art. Two aspects are explored; the recent growth of Oceanic art forms in private contemporary New Zealand fine art collections and the increasing market promotion of cultural artefacts as fine art works. The study concludes that there has been an increasing interest by collectors of contemporary New Zealand fine art to incorporate Oceanic historic and contemporary art forms into their fine art collections. The study also identified the emergence of a new type of dealer who operates in an urban context to promote both historic and contemporary Oceanic art forms within a fine art gallery environment. The dealer articulates a 'narrative of identity' symptomatic of settler primitivism since colonial settlement in New Zealand. She uses Oceanic art within the context of a fine art collection not only to facilitate the collectors' examination of individual identity but also to negotiate a sense of place within a dynamic post-colonial multicultural environment.
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    Cultivating continuity and change : the domestic garden tradition of the Italian community in Island Bay, Wellington, New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Visual and Material Culture at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2013) Lepionka-Strong, Wanda
    In Island Bay, Wellington, there is a small community of New Zealanders of Italian descent who appear to maintain traditions of Italian life within a contemporary suburban landscape. This cultural distinction is manifest from a century of chain migration from Italy to New Zealand. Some individuals in the community identify themselves as Italian and others describe themselves as Italian albeit being born and raised in New Zealand. Being ‘Italian’, is an expression of their identity as individuals and affiliation to a group. This concept warrants further inquiry as to how participants see themselves as being ‘Italian’ and how this is constructed. From casual observation, the material culture of contemporary suburban garden space captures concepts of cultural identity. This thesis examines what it means to be Italian for the older and younger generations of this community and the distinctions between these generations, through an ethnographic analysis of their gardens and gardening practice. For the purpose of this thesis, the term ‘Italians’ will describe the participants in this research. The practice of gardening and the ‘stuff’ it contains, whether conceptual, physical or emotional, will provide a better understanding of the ‘cultural sense’ of being a first, second and third-generation Italian living in New Zealand. It is clear the Italians bridge two cultures in everyday life. The everyday for this community is tinged with familiar landscapes and memory from another country. However, this familiarity is real to some as opposed to imagined by others. Cultural memory through gardening practice is the mechanism in which Italian gardeners embrace their customs and traditions. The processes engaged by Italians to help maintain garden traditions assert their cultural identity and display aspects of continuity and adaptive changes. Christopher Tilley’s volume of anthropological work on understanding the materiality of the garden and its connection to people is drawn on to help make sense of identity constructions. Daniel Miller’s anthropological concepts identifies that through things we are capable of developing relationships, which nurtures the care of the self. Sociologist, Phillip Vannini’s work is also drawn on to make succinct sense of ethnographic work within an everyday environment, which is significant to the people that live within them. Multidisciplinary in its character, this thesis is grounded in Pierre Bourdieu’s philosophical theoretical work on distinction and the concept of habitus. Italian identity places difference from the other and the learning of certain dispositions which constitutes being Italian. Bourdieu’s habitus thus provides a theoretical framework on which to critically analyse social practices around the materiality of gardens. The thesis will, in particular, examine the critical social role of the contemporary suburban garden within this community. The study of the material culture of the Italian garden space in a contemporary New Zealand suburb provides a lens into the experience and nature of a small, close-knit community who see themselves as being ‘Italian’.
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    Between shores : transnational subjects and visual & material culture : selected case studies : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Visual and Material Culture Studies at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2013) Shao, (Vivian) Wenhao
    This thesis explores relationships between material culture and transnational individuals. It discusses how visual and material objects function in the lives of transnational students in helping them adapt to their adopted country and new environment. It highlights what objects can tell us about the impact of the physical process of migration, how they represent people who move across different cultures, and how they relate to the construction of identity and memory. Chapter One ‘Transnationalism and Diaspora’ explicates different transnational typologies, and the different aspects and challenges transnational individuals experience. The following chapter, ‘Material Culture and Transnational Subjects’, represents the study of material culture, how social meaning in objects change across cultures, and the acculturation experience. Finally, three case studies are presented to illustrate how transnational individuals use objects as symbols, memories, and channels to reflect their personal experiences. These case studies demonstrate how objects affect individual psychology. In the summary, I conclude that objects play a particularly important role in the shaping of transnational lives and that interactions between the transnational subject and everyday objects—efforts to sustain previous interactions by continuing to use, make and treasure objects from another place—shape experience across cultural places.
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    Shaping Maori identities and histories : collecting and exhibiting Maori material culture at the Auckland and Canterbury museums from the 1850s to the 1920s : submitted in fulfilment of the requirement of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Social Anthropology Programme, School of Global Studies, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2000) Cameron, Fiona Ruth
    As museums now reinterpret their collections, many or which have their foundations in the experience of colonialism, we may ponder the contextual meanings and discursive practices scripted into them during their formation. Shaping Maori identities and histories critically examines the processes of collecting and exhibiting Maori material culture at the Auckland and Canterbury Museums from the 1850s to the early 1900s. It interrogates the values, meanings and motivations that drove these processes, and the way new identities and histories were established for Maori people as a result of these practices. Ethnology as a discourse within the context of the museum and the exhibition has been used to establish and authorise meanings in relation to Maori history and identity. The following discussions problematise these relationships within the context of emerging museum theory. These practices of representation are viewed as a 'cultural text' in order to read and understand the cultural and ideological assumptions that have informed them.
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    The Marquesan collection at the British Museum, London : genesis, growth and statis : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Museum Studies at Massey University, Manawatu, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2012) McKinney, Natasha R
    This thesis examines the formation of the collection from the Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia, at the British Museum in London. Specifically, it investigates the historical and museological factors which have influenced acquisition over time, and questions why the collection was not expanded in the second half of the twentieth century. Marquesan culture is outlined, in order to contextualise the circumstances in which objects were first collected, and to gain insight into both indigenous and outsider priorities in these exchanges. The dramatic impact of contact, and colonisation by the French, facilitates an understanding of the major changes in artistic production over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which led to the cessation of certain art forms, the persistence of others, and the creation of completely new categories. This establishes, therefore, what was available for collection. Archival research served to trace objects to the moment of collection, and to reveal the main characters and transactions which led to their acquisition by the Museum. It emerges that individual collectors and curators played a central role in the growth and composition of the collection – attitudes of the latter being strongly influenced by contemporary anthropological theory. The main factors which contributed to the stasis of the collection are the relatively limited availability of Marquesan objects in comparison to earlier periods, combined with the persistence of negative attitudes towards objects which demonstrated significant external influence. The manner in which the collection has been presented to the public via exhibitions is also studied, revealing the multiple redefinitions of the objects and their role within the Museum and scholarly discourse over the course of the collection’s existence. A clear and persistent bias towards the earliest collected material becomes apparent throughout. The thesis argues that the composition of the collection has served to maintain this bias, and to restrict the development of new exhibition initiatives, which may have created the impetus for renewed collecting. A reassessment is suggested, in light of changing museum practice and the contemporary relevance of the collection for Marquesans.