| Abstract: | ‘Post-colonial criticism bears witness to the unequal and uneven forces of cultural representation involved in the contest for political and social authority within the modern world order’. (Homi Bhabha 1994, p. 171) Feminist discourses attend to the experiences of women in many social spheres, including that of the artworld. In this paper I, as a Maori woman, offer an outline of Postcolonial Maori Feminism that complies with the cultural theorist Homi Bhabha's notion of ‘Post-colonial criticism’. The connection between feminist discourse and the accomplished Maori artist Robyn Kahukiwa has not been strongly emphasised in current published literature. The cultural context that Robyn Kahukiwa refers to in her art is, primarily, that of Maori women. I argue, by using one exemplary picture entitled Hine-Titama, that Robyn Kahukiwa and her artwork align with the work of some other Maori feminists. I also posit an association between Kahukiwa and some examples of ‘non-Maori’ feminist writing that furthers our understanding of cultural identities based on gender and race. I refer to those cultural identities as they relate to Maori women in New Zealand. |
