‘I Will Not Leave My Baby Behind’: A Cook Island Māori Family's Experience of New Zealand Māori Traditional Healing

Traditional healers in many parts of the world have used family focused understandings and interventions well before the emergence of western family therapy theory and practice. This paper gives a detailed account of New Zealand Māori traditional healing work with a Cook Island Māori family in which the eldest daughter was in considerable distress as were her family, who believed that she had become maki tūpāpaku (possessed). This account is told from the perspectives of the child psychiatrist, the traditional healer and the mother of the family. While the intervention bears a superficial resemblance to western family therapy approaches, the theoretical foundation reflects the traditional healer's New Zealand Māori world views in which spiritual understandings are paramount, and concepts of mana, tapu and mauri ¹ guide him in the family healing process. The single session described here can be viewed as an indigenous family therapy intervention involving six generations of family members, both living and deceased, in the one room. Conclusions: Indigenous communities have called for traditional healers to be employed alongside child mental health workers and family therapists who work with their communities. Close and sincere collaboration between an indigenous traditional healer and a health professional can offer a family in distress healing possibilities that may not be available to them in conventional child mental health or other family therapy settings.     

Political entrepreneurship in the field of Māori sovereignty in Aotearoa New Zealand

Individual actors have the potential to shape political outcomes through creative use of opportunities. Political entrepreneurship identifies how such actors recognize and exploit opportunities, for personal or collective gain. The existing literature focuses on individuals operating within institutional settings, with less attention paid to other types of actors. In this article, I argue for an expansion of the political entrepreneurship framework, by considering individuals in the electoral and protest arenas. An examination of the field of Māori sovereignty, or tino rangatiratanga, in Aotearoa New Zealand allows exploration of prominent actors’ innovative strategies and practices. The findings highlight the actors’ reliance on identity in mobilizing support within the community, to press claims. Broadening the application of political entrepreneurship demonstrates the roles of social, cultural and political capital in influencing outcomes, by identifying opportunities available to individuals embedded in the community and according to the context of the arena.     

Meeting the Wharenui Shapes Teaching/Learning Therapy: Place Pedagogy,New Materialism,and Whakaaro Māori

A cultural meeting house hosts a group of Master of Counselling students at the start of their studies. This article focuses on an exploratory study with one student group during their encounter with the house. We give a material‐discursive account of one student's narrative of family, belonging, and connection to the house. In the account we draw on whakaaro Māori (cultural thinking and understanding), new materialism, place‐space learning, and narrative therapy.     

Keskidee Aroha: Translation on the Colonial Stage

In 1979 a Black theatre group from London toured the north island of Aotearoa New Zealand, visiting community centres and marae (traditional Māori meeting places). ¹ The troupe was named after a small Guyanese bird renowned for its resilience – the Keskidee – and consisted of Black British, African-Caribbean, African-American and African performers including a group of Rasta musicians, the Ras Messengers. The New Zealand organizers of the tour called their collective Keskidee Aroha, aroha being the Māori word for compassion and empathy. This article explores the colonial stage upon which Keskidee played and assesses the type of inter-cultural translations that are prompted when (post-)colonized subjects speak to each-other rather than address the colonizer.     

Defining Māori language revitalisation: A project in folk linguistics

The postmodern and critical movements in language policy, with their redefinition of governmentality and attention to power structures, call for localised perspectives on language arrangements. In this way, a polity, in its social and cultural context, can be understood as much as the policies it operates. In the case of Indigenous languages undergoing revitalisation, this allows us to define language revitalisation, and the vitality it should deliver, not through western scholarship but for local purposes with local ideas by examining local knowledge and preferences. To do this, a folk linguistic approach was applied to language policy research. A quantitative and qualitative survey investigated how around 1,300 Indigenous and non‐Indigenous youth in New Zealand define Māori language revitalisation from their own perspective and how they perceive the revitalisation processes and outcomes proposed in scholarship and local discourses. The paper shows that claimed linguistic knowledge not only exists parallel to language attitudes, but informs local policy ideas. The findings indicate that these youth define language revitalisation and vitality in terms contextualised by local ontology, knowledge, ideologies and values, therefore challenging the local applicability of universal theories.     

Criminal sittings – rape in the colony, New Zealand, 1862

In 1862 His Honor, Justice Johnston, issued his instructions to the jury of the New Zealand Supreme Court for two simultaneous rape trials – the alleged rape of a European woman by two Māori men, and an alleged “assault with intent to commit a rape” of a Māori woman by a European man. This article argues that those instructions should be read within an historiographical critique of British colonial expansion, print capitalism and violence. Drawing on feminist postcolonial theorizing the question posed here, is, “What is the historical, ideological context for a newspaper reporting of the possible rape of a Māori woman in 1862?     

Black Rain: a kaupapa Māori (a Māori approach) to addressing family violence and intergenerational trauma

In working with Māori to address family violence and the trauma that arises when it is occurring across generations, three elements are essential. The first is helping whānau (family members) to recognise and reconnect with the impact of the violence they are caught up in. The second is to do so in a way that contextualises this because it never involves and affects individuals alone. And third is to do so by being conscious of the whole of a person's being and being aware that the spiritual realm is the entry point. For 30 years, Fay Pouesi has been working with Māori whānau, initiating kaupapa (approaches) that include these three elements. This article details one kaupapa, known as Black Rain, which has been successfully helping men and women to break the cycles of intergenerational violence within their whānau since 2010. To do this, we will draw upon Fay's work and that of two colleagues who now work with her.     

Voice quality as a marker of ethnicity in New Zealand: From acoustics to perception1

This study is the first acoustic analysis of voice quality in the two main ethnic dialects of New Zealand English. In a production experiment, narratives from 36 speakers were analyzed and H1‐H2 spectral tilt measures were calculated for each vowel. The results provide instrumental evidence for impressionistic claims about the differing voice quality features of the two main ethnic groups, showing that Maori English speakers are creakier than European New Zealanders. A perception experiment was also carried out to determine the perceptual salience of voice quality for the identification of speaker ethnicity. The results of regression analyses confirm that listeners are sensitive to the phonation differences, and are able to rely on phonation cues in an ethnic dialect identification task. The study demonstrates the role of voice quality as a critical sociolinguistic variable, and highlights the importance of listeners’ previous dialect exposure in terms of sensitivity to prosodic cues. Ko tēnei pūrongo te tirohanga tuatahi ki ētahi āhuatanga o te reo e puta ana i te korokoro o ngā kaikōrero o ngā reo ā‐iwi e rua o te Reo Pākehā i Aotearoa. I tētahi whakamātau i āta tirohia ngā oropuare o ētahi kōrero nō ngā kaikōrero 36, ā, kua tatauria ngā ine H1‐H2 e kīia ana ko te spectral tilt. Ko ngā putanga he taunakitanga mō ngā whakaaro o te tāngata e pā ana ki te rerekētanga o ngā reo o te hunga Pākehā me te hunga Māori, e whakaatu hoki ana he kekē atu te reo o ngā mea e kōrero ana i te ‘Māori English’ i te reo e kōrerohia ana e te iwi Pākehā. He whakamātau whakarongo i whakahaerehia kia kite mena he āwhina tēnei āhuatanga o te reo kia mōhio te kaiwhakarongo ko wai te iwi o te kaikōrero. Ko ngā whakaputanga o ngā tatauranga e kī ana kei te tino mārama tēnei āhuatanga o te reo e puta ana i te korokoro o te tāngata, ā, ka taea ēnei rerekētanga te whakamahi kia whakawehea te tangata Māori i te tangata Pākehā. Nā tēnei ka kitea he āhuatanga motuhake te reo o te korokoro, ā, he mea nui hoki mena kua tino wāia te kaiwhakarongo ki ngā reo ā‐iwi. [Māori]     

Digitization and materiality: researching community memory practice today

Among the most deep‐seated anxieties of the Internet age is the fear of technologically produced forgetting. Technology critics and sociologists of memory alike argue that daily exposure to overwhelming flows of information is undermining our ability to connect and synthesize past and present. Acknowledging the salience of these concerns our approach seeks to understand the contemporary conditions of collective memory practice in relation to processes of digitization. We do so by developing an analysis of how digital technologies (image and audio capture, storage, editing, reproduction, distribution and exhibition) have become embedded in wider memory practices of storytelling and commemoration in a community setting: the Salford Lads Club, an organization in the north of England in continuous operation since 1903. The diverse memory practices prompted by the 100th anniversary of the Club's annual camp provide a context in which to explore the transformations of access, interpretation and use, that occur when the archives of civic organizations are digitized. Returning to Halbwachs' (1992) seminal insight that all collective memory requires a material social framework, we argue, contrary to prevailing characterizations of digitization, that under specific conditions, digital resources facilitate new forms of materialization that contribute to sustaining a civic organization's intergenerational continuity.     

Generations Linked: A Case Example of Māori Grandparents

This article offers an analysis of the significance of intergenerational living patterns and relationships as the mechanisms by which Pacific grandparents preserve and transmit indigenous cultural values, beliefs, and practices. A case example from a study conducted among Māori grandparents in Aotearoa, New Zealand, serves as the core focus of discussion. Seventeen grandparents were interviewed about their lived experiences in their multiple generation homes. Findings indicate that intergenerational life is a means for linking generations and transmission of indigenous culture to the next generation. Participants discussed their intergenerational relationship with much affection and love for their grandchildren and family. Discussion and implications for future research and practice are provided.     

‘Writing’ aesth‐ethics on the child's body: Developing maternal subjectivities through clothing our children

What could we learn from the ‘aesth‐ethic’ practices of clothing children? The dual focus of this article is to analyse the everyday clothing of children as well as the development of maternal subjectivities as relevant to discussions of aesthetic labour in the field of organization studies. Drawing upon the literatures on aesthetic labour and maternal subjectivities in the field of organization studies, we develop a fine‐grained understanding of the relatively intense and effortful maternal labours that clothing our children encapsulates. Methodologically, we use autoethnographic diary notes combined with feminist ‘memory work’ to analyse clothing as an affectual form of storytelling or ‘writing’ on the child's body that (re)produces certain sociocultural understandings about mothering, sustainability and childhood(s) in a Nordic context embraced by western consumerism. By considering the limitations of the approach taken to drawing wider conclusions about motherhoods, identity construction and clothing, this article advances our understanding of the development of particular middle‐class maternal subjectivities seeking to problematize mass consumerism through childrenswear, and how idea(l)s concerning gender and childhood(s) are being (re)produced in and through clothing.     

“Shifting the Power”: Youth Activists’ Narrative Reframing of the Immigrant Rights Movement

This article explores collective efforts by undocumented youth activists to use storytelling to reframe the debates around immigration reform and discursively position themselves as the rightful leaders of a movement that had been dominated by adult citizen‐advocates. Drawing on 19 months of fieldwork, 37 in‐depth interviews, and hundreds of pages of movement documents, I show how youth activists in the United States worked together to develop stories that: (1) drew into question the legitimacy of adult citizen‐advocates to speak on issues of immigration and (2) cast undocumented immigrant youth as the proper authorities on these matters. I argue that through collective storytelling and character work, the activists were able to subvert adult citizen authority and construct themselves as powerful, new collective actors in the contemporary immigrant rights movement. I conclude by discussing some of the practical implications and limitations of using narrative reframing strategies to advance the social change agendas of marginalized movement factions.     

Social movements and the politics of care: empathy,solidarity and eviction blockades

ABSTRACT

This paper develops a perspective of mobilization based on the ethics of care to explore the complexities of political solidarity in social movements. On the one hand, it is interested in the reasons why commonly aggrieved individuals do not always collaborate to confront their oppression. On the other, it explores why sometimes people initiate mobilization for causes that do not benefit them directly. From a care perspective, aggrieved individuals may not mobilize to confront their troubles because some of their caring needs (emotional, identity, and participatory) are not covered. At the same time, empathy motivates people not affected by a grievance to initiate mobilization in support of the oppressed collective. Internal solidarity among those aggrieved may be created during the process of mobilization through care work. The analytical relevance of this model is demonstrated explaining the mobilization of the ‘Platform of Those Affected by Mortgages’, the biggest housing organization in Spain. A care-based approach to mobilization contributes to our analysis of contentious collective action by helping to better understand the complexities of political solidarity and the mechanisms through which organizations foster solidarity among their members.     

“Plan your Burn,Burn your Plan”: How Decentralization,Storytelling, and Communification Can Support Participatory Practices

Research has found that compared with larger groups, small ones had fewer difficulties with retaining their participatory‐democratic practices and values. However, the endurance and expansion of Burning Man, from 20 friends and family in 1986 to a temporary arts community of more than 66,000 persons in 2014, suggests that collectivities can maintain and augment participatory practices over increasing scale. Using an ethnographic study of organizing activities spanning 1998 to 2001 and follow‐up research through 2012, I focus on how the Burning Man organization has sustained its participatory‐democratic principles over dramatic growth. Specifically, I show how the Burning Man organization promoted and sustained authentic voice and engagement by (1) decentralizing agency, (2) contextualizing norms and practices via storytelling and discussion, and (3) “communifying” labor.     

GLOBAL STRUCTURES OF COMMON DIFFERENCE,CULTURAL OBJECTIFICATION,AND THEIR SUBVERSIONS: CULTURAL POLITICS IN AN AOTEAROA/NEW ZEALAND SCHOOL

This article adds to Richard Wilk's work on the emergence of “global structures of common difference,” that organize diversity through objectification of culture. Using cases from an Aotearoa/New Zealand school in 1997–1998, this article reveals a limit to the hegemony of global structures of common difference in daily life. By focusing on the indigenous Māori culture and newly arrived Asian's culture, this article shows (1) how variously positioned individuals did not necessarily subscribe to global structures of common difference—defying, evading, critiquing, ignoring, and circumventing them—and (2) to what degrees people objectified cultural differences and with what effects when global structures of common difference shaped cultural differences.     

In search of popular management: Sensemaking,sensegiving and storytelling in the excellence project

Critical accounts of popular management have tended to caricature the authors of this literary genre and have, furthermore, made broad claims as to the nature and potential of the organizational storytelling which features in these texts. This paper re-examines such claims and proclivities. It argues that any attempt to explore the nature of popular management or to account for the organizing potential of its storytelling must be located within an account of storytelling practice. To this end, the paper offers a critical analysis of the excellence project that is situated within a review of Tom Peters’ storyworld. Acknowledging the extent to which popular management deploys organizational storytelling in its endeavours, we offer – uniquely – a longitudinal analysis of Tom Peters' storytelling practices. Noting a tension between organizational sensegiving and organizational sensemaking processes, we argue that the storyworld of the excellence project acts to obscure the frictions, stresses and dislocations associated with the pursuit of business excellence. Highlighting the persistence of local sensemaking processes within and between those forms of public speech fostered by popular management, however, we argue that the tales which constitute the excellence project are, when viewed in context, more diverse and yet less productive than previously imagined.     

Identity and solidarity in the complex of citizenship: The relational approach

Within modernity, social identity and solidarity are deemed to be conflicting terms on principle. What has been called the culture of difference triggers a weak solidarity anywhere. But, if it is really so, how can we explain the rise of new social solidarities, a phenomenon which is nevertheless occurring throughout Europe along with concomitant processes of fragementation and differentiation? The author's general argument is that conflicts between social identities and solidarities cannot be understood in terms of a clash between individual and holistic perspectives. We need a relational perspective. From this angle, the author tries to explain why and how a post‐modern societal balance between social solidarity and social identities (i.e. a new citizenship) is emerging today, from the society rather than from the state, in such a way as to build up new forms of interdependencies and links between identities and solidarities. Sociologically speaking, it may be that a new societal semantic is emerging, according to which citizenship is a complex of rights and duties not only of individuals but also of social groups, arranging civic life into a number of ‘universalistic autonomies’ capable of reconciling collective goals and self‐management practices, solidarity and identity issues. This is the new challenge for post‐modern societies. The name of this new game is ‘societal citizenship’ or citizenship of social autonomies, including regional ones.     

Gender and ethnic equity in Aotearoa New Zealand's public service before and since Covid-19: Toward intersectional inclusion?

Since its bi-cultural foundation with Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi, signed in 1840 by Māori, the indigenous Polynesian people of Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ), chiefs and representatives of the British Crown), cultural identities have expanded through immigration. While Aotearoa NZ's government seeks to encourage workplace diversity in public service agencies, developments are being disrupted by Covid-19. Using a typology of equality approaches, this study appraises the “ambition” of equity progress in Aotearoa NZ public service agencies based on content analysis of interviews with sector experts, agency staff and managers. In terms of equity discourses, workplace inequities emerge as more pronounced for Māori and Pasifika (the indigenous peoples of the Pacific), indicating that more “ambitious” equality initiatives, including those which aim for intersectional inclusion, are needed. The study thereby contributes a more nuanced understanding of equity approaches that could meaningfully inform workplace initiatives designed to recognize, value and empower gender diversity. Its relevance for Aotearoa NZ, which has one of the most diverse working-age populations in the world, is likely to resonate in other countries where workforce diversity is yet to translate into equitable engagement in and experiences of work organizations by all.     

“Whom should We Help First?” Transnational Helping Practices in Ecuadorian Migration

Collective remittances, in the framework of migrant transnationalism, have been recently dealt with in some empirical research, especially on the Mexican‐US migration system. Far less studied is their significance in different migration flows, including their real contribution – as desirable as this may be – to local development. The article is concerned with a bottom up analysis of a migration flow where collective remittances – as the only way for emigrants to keep helping their local communities, well beyond their own families – are still in their infancy. It explores, through a translocal ethnography of Ecuadorian migration to Italy, the underlying attitudes, personal meanings and expectations – as well as the structural opportunities and constraints – accounting for helping practices at a distance. Charitable transfers to communities of origin are reconstructed as to their motivations, their main aims and beneficiaries, their embeddedness in mutual networks among immigrant co‐nationals. How is it that some of them decide to help “people in need” in their own communities overseas, or in their home towns, or in both? Is this an expression of communal belonging, or a matter of social status maintenance, or something else? Further reflections on the dilemmas inherent in transnational helping practices are then developed. Concluding remarks emphasize the relatively poor scope for such initiatives, in a recent and first‐generation flow over a long distance. While co‐ethnic solidarity overseas is a precondition for transnational helping practices, the latter are also affected by the developments of public policies in the countries of origin and of destination. Overall, an effective integration overseas is necessary for collective remittances to have some currency and impact.     

Virus interruptus: An Arendtian exploration of political world‐building in pandemic times

Building upon a series of blog posts and conversations, two feminist scholars explore how political community, trust, responsibility and solidarity are affected by the COVID‐19 pandemic. We explore the ways in which we can engage in political world‐building during pandemic times through the work of Hannah Arendt. Following Arendt’s notion of the world as the space for human togetherness, we ask: how can we respond to COVID‐19’s interruptions to the familiarity of daily life and our relationship to public space? By extending relational accounts of public health and organizational ethics, we critique a narrow view of solidarity that focuses on individual compliance with public health directives. Instead, we argue that solidarity involves addressing structural inequities, both within public health and our wider community. Finally, we suggest possibilities for political world‐building by considering how new forms of human togetherness might emerge as we forge a collective ‘new normal’.