Jewellery as pepeha : contemporary jewellery practice informed by Māori inquiry : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Fine Arts at Massey University, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa, Palmerston North, Aotearoa New Zealand
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Date
2014
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Massey University
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Abstract
This thesis investigates and articulates an ethical Maori framework for New
Zealand contemporary jewellery practice that represents a distinctive method of
making, and thinking, unique to Te Waipounamu/Aotearoa New Zealand.
Contemporary jewellery is an international applied art genre that self-consciously
investigates the wearable object and the body as a site of reference, including related
social contexts, such as ideas of preciousness, memento and heirloom. Currently a
comprehensive analysis of contemporary jewellery practice embedded in whakapapa
from Te Waipounamu/Aotearoa does not exist, and this thesis explores the implications
of thinking about contemporary jewellery practice from a Kai Tahu, and Maori
perspective through a taoka methodology. The metaphor of pepeha allows
contemporary jewellery to be located within a Maori social context and a uniquely
Maori system of knowing, by contextualising taoka/contemporary jewellery alongside
oral narrative as statements of collective identity anchored in Te Ao Kai Tahu (a Kai
Tahu worldview). The thesis asks: How can a contemporary jewellery practice be
informed by narratives of whakapapa, whenua, kaika, and thus become taoka tuku
iho?
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Ethnic jewellery, Modern jewellery, Māori, New Zealand, Aotearoa, Research Subject Categories::HUMANITIES and RELIGION::Aesthetic subjects::Art, Pepeha