Revaluing raranga : weaving and women in Trans-Tasman Maori cultural discourses

Abstract

Raranga is a generic label for diverse forms of Maori weaving, primarily, though not exclusively undertaken by Maori women. Like other forms of Maori cultural production, raranga has undergone dramatic changes since British colonisation of Aotearoa New Zealand in the first half of the 19th century, and consequent Maori trans-local, trans-regional and trans-national migrations. Such changes portray various, and at times contradictory, perspectives and values amongst Maori people responding in different ways to colonialist hegemony. In this thesis, raranga is discussed in relation to Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia, in order to highlight changing, contested and contradictory cultural values, particularly in migrant settings. I engage with the question: 'How is raranga indispensable to Trans-Tasman Maori cultural discourses?' by challenging dominant colonialist discourses on Maori culture that erase or diminish the importance of Maori women and their cultural production. For this challenge I have constructed a clearly defined 'discursive marae', as both a model and a metaphor for discussing Maori women's social experiences that feature raranga. It is based on physical and ceremonial features of the marae, an important Maori institution in Aotearoa New Zealand. It is multi-faceted and complex, employing various Maori cultural referents, anecdotes and poetic metaphors, family histories, unpublished and published written and oral records, visual representations, and analytical interpretations. With it, I posit interwoven connections amongst various linguistic, poetic, technical, historical, spiritual and conceptual aspects of raranga in trans-local, trans-regional and trans-national settings. The theoretical premises upon which this 'marae' is built, or more accurately 'woven', are Maori philosophy (including spirituality) and postcolonialist feminism, from my perspective as a Maori woman scholar. In revaluing raranga, I argue that raranga discourses extend beyond technical attributes and its social stigmatisation as 'only women's work', deserving extensive engagement both within and beyond this thesis 'marae'. I demonstrate its importance to Trans-Tasman Maori cultural contexts, to Maori identification and identity politics, to a number of prominent Maori cultural tenets, to representations of Maori people, particularly women, to a spiritual environment, and to Maori women's political struggles.