Waka Kuaka

Imprint & Guidelines for Authors

Hamish Macdonald — Sat, 19 Oct 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Waka Kuaka | The Journal of the Polynesian Society, September 2024, Vol. 133, Issue no.3

Hamish Macdonald — Sat, 19 Oct 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Publications received: June to September 2024

Hamish Macdonald — Sat, 19 Oct 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Histories of Hate: The Radical Right in Aotearoa New Zealand

Gail Romano — Sat, 19 Oct 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Knowledge Is a Blessing on Your Mind: Selected Writings, 1980–2020.

Pauline Reynolds — Sat, 19 Oct 2024 00:00:00 -0500

The Best Country to Give Birth? Midwifery, Homebirth and the Politics of Maternity in Aotearoa New Zealand, 1970–2022

Sarah McLean-Orsborn — Sat, 19 Oct 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Blood and Dirt: Prison Labour and the Making of New Zealand

Lucy Mackintosh — Sat, 19 Oct 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Waikiki (film)

Richard Hamasaki, Drew Kahuʻāina Broderick — Sat, 19 Oct 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Reflections on Re/creating Missing Components of the ’Ahu Heva Tūpāpa’u for the Perth Museum (Scotland)

Pauline Reynolds — Sat, 19 Oct 2024 00:00:00 -0500

This piece is an exploration of thought processes, logistical planning, research and creative practice involved in conceptualising and making the missing barkcloth components of an ’ahu heva tūpāpa’u (chief mourner’s regalia) that went on permanent exhibition for the opening of the new Perth Museum in Scotland in March 2024. The regalia is possibly one of around ten collected in Tahiti by Captain James Cook during his second Pacific voyage, with one of these ending up in Perth via the collections of Dr David Ramsay. During the voyage, or possibly during its life in Perth, the regalia became separated from some of its barkcloth components. This paper is a record of the process that went into making the replica pieces.

Gender Inhibits Embodiment for Intersexuality and in Te Ao Māori

Rogena Sterling — Sat, 19 Oct 2024 00:00:00 -0500

An important worldview in traditional cultures, especially within te ao Māori (the Māori worldview), is that embodiment concerns personhood and relationality, as persons are bodily situated within the environment including in all things between the earth and the heavens. However, the social theories and background of the 1930s–1950s have had a significant impact on the idea and foundations of embodiment. These theories relied on ideas of sexism, though were also linked with racism. Gender was established by medicine as an apparatus of power and control over bodies and beings. Intersexuality was at the heart of the establishment of gender, with its invisibility ensured as a means of maintaining the status quo of the West. Gender was appropriated by Western feminists, disguised as an ahistorical and acultural signifier, to universalise the Western liberal worldview. This article traces the history and purpose of the concept of gender and the way it has been understood and deployed as an apparatus in society. It then illustrates how the deployment of gender has affected the embodiment of intersexuality and te ao Māori (such as on wāhine (women) and takatāpui (sexual diversity)). Lastly, the article sets out the importance of decentring gender to enable a culturally accountable embodiment with a sexuality of dignity that is not limited and disembodied through gender.