Home Fires: Creating a Pacific Theatre in the Diaspora

Abstract

Theatre created by Pacific Islanders is perhaps the most recent significant development in New Zealand theatre of the 1990s. Exploring this new phenomenon within a concept of diaspora, productions, producers and themes are linked to notions of displacement, home, and disruption on several levels. Three recent plays and productions are examined: Think of a Garden by the Samoan-American John Kneubuhl, which explores memory as the basis of diasporic identity; Home Fires, a collaborative production between Pacific Island and Ma°ori artists in which a new kind of syncretic theatrical style transcending specific cultural codes was developed; and Tatau – Rites of Passage, a performance created by the Christchurch-based group Pacific Underground and the Australian community theatre group Zeal Theatre which explores the notion of ritual reincorporation – involving actual tattooing on stage – as a means of transcending diaspora and repairing the ruptures caused by it.

La re-creación de la ‘tradición’ en el teatro contemporáneo māori y diaspórico samoano en Aotearoa. ¿Una fuente de inspiración para la producción del teatro contemporáneo rapanui?

“…La obra necesitaba realizar la ceremonia 'tradicional' del tatuaje samoano. Esta ceremonia es un rito de iniciación a la edad adulta que conserva un gran significado en la cultura contemporánea samoana (Balme, 2007), por lo que mostrar públicamente esta ceremonia fue fuertemente criticado por los ancianos samoanos en Aotearoa (Balme & Carstensen, 2001). Después de varias conversaciones y negociaciones entre los directores de la obra y los ancianos, se confirmó la participación en la obra del maestro tatuador samoano Su'a Sulu'ape Paulo, con lo que la actuación fue validada por la comunidad (Balme & Cartensen, 2001).…”

“…4 Elegí el teatro samoano como caso de estudio porque los samoanos son la población más grande de las islas del Pacífico que viven en Aotearoa. Esta última se ha convertido en un sitio clave para la producción de teatro diaspórico samoano (Balme & Carstensen, 2001), el cual ha explorado diversos estilos de representación, combinando diferentes códigos representativos y originando actuaciones que no solo son parte de su lugar de origen, sino también del lugar donde han sido creadas y mostradas. 5 En el caso del Treaty of Waitangi, el tratado entre la corona británica y los jefes māori, una buena fuente de información es el libro Ka Whawhai Tonu Matou: Struggle Without End del académico māori Ranginui Walker ( 2004), quien ofrece la perspectiva māori sobre el proceso de colonización en Aotearoa.…”

Insider and Outsider Research: Negotiating Self at the Edge of the Emic/Etic Divide

“…These young women could never occupy one space fully, rather they would find themselves negotiating a single space while also occupying several others. Although classic research tends to frame Pacific youth identities in New Zealand as diasporic (e.g., Aporosa, 2015;Balme & Carstensen, 2001;Chaitin, Awwad, & Andriani, 2009;Esser, 2012;James, 2016), Tupuola turned to the work of Nina Krebs (1999) and the idea of edgewalking. Krebs's own writing breaks the academic rules in providing a number of narratives that draw truths to her concept of edgewalking, as such, the best definition is found in the synopsis or her work:…”

Keeping Them Out, Letting You In

“…Using photos, recipes, and old stories, I created a food and adventure show exploring the impacts of colonization and diaspora on my family. A dynamic Prezi of maps of the Philippines, historic photos of our old family house in Cebu, and images of queer and mestizo Filipinos was the backdrop to a live monologue exploring “key diasporic concerns—memory, cultural loss, disorientation, violence, and exploitation” (Balme & Christensen, 2001, p. 45, cited in Denzin & Lincoln, 2008, p. 7). I wanted to research and share my stories the ways that I have researched and gathered narratives of my participants; an “intertwining of authenticity and artfulness” (Leavy, 2009, p. 279).…”