Unsettler poets : lyric voice and imagery in contemporary poetry of Pākehā entitlement, identity and belonging in Aotearoa New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for Master of Creative Writing, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa - Massey University, Manawatū, Aotearoa New Zealand. EMBARGOED until 24th March 2028.

Abstract

Given the deep reach of colonial empire across the world over the past 400 years, and specifically, into Aotearoa since 1769, there is substantial debate about whether non-Māori authors have the right to write Māori characters, knowledge, worldviews and experiences in fiction and poetry, and, if at all, how? As a Pākehā poet descended from British missionaries, farmers and teachers, I ask how lyric voice and imagery can be used to explore our connections with tangata whenua and the whenua we live on. I come to this subject with the assumption that there is an ethical imperative for Pākehā poets to honestly examine and ‘unsettle’ our inherited cultural and material privilege when writing about our sense of identity and belonging in Aotearoa. This thesis uses two methods of investigation: a critical portion with two interlinked essays, and a creative portion comprised of a collection of poetry. The critical portion firstly investigates how five Pākehā poets—Dinah Hawken, Cilla McQueen, Catherine Delahunty, Makyla Curtis and Michaela Keeble—include Māori narrative voices and/or perspectives when addressing relationships and injustices (historical and present day) in their lyric works. To what extent do these poets demonstrate the importance of cultural respect rather than appropriation in their poems? Secondly, in a closer reading of poems selected from Dinah Hawken’s There is no harbour and Makyla Curtis’ Apertures, I analyse how lyric voice(s) and imagery are used as strategies to address the violent, dispossessive processes of settler colonialism, and the ancestral colonial legacies that have shaped each poet’s sense of identity, privilege and belonging in Aotearoa New Zealand. I consider how these poems might begin to unsettle the dominant psychological paradigm of Pākehā privilege and entitlement that allows the impacts of colonisation to continue. How do their lyric poems affect a shift in perception and a call to action? In addition, how does the work of Hawken and Curtis align with postcolonial ecocritical theory, and contribute to the conceptual decolonisation of Aotearoa New Zealand? The investigations within my critical essay inform and inspire my creative component; a collection of poetry titled Inter | mission, which explores my roles as a Pākehā teacher, writer and activist in Aotearoa, from my ancestral settler histories to my own life experiences. I develop lyric poetic voice(s) and imagery as strategies to reflect on and reckon with the lives of three generations of my Scottish settler-colonial ancestors, spanning late 19th century Kelso, Scotland to early 20th century Bolivia, Whanganui, and Te Urewera, where my great grandparents and great aunt and uncle were Presbyterian ministers, missionaries, and teachers. My poems contemplate intercultural relationships, past and present, and the many faces of power and privilege involved in ‘settling down’ and ‘changing hearts and minds’ in lands changed by colonisation.