From "The Construction of Place"
It is within this context of the misuse of the category "global feminism"
that I want to draw attention to just one issue that was hotly
contested during the 1980s, namely, the question of speaking rights on the
marae (a far more complex version of the Town Hall but with spiritual
connotations; the marae is a building and the land surrounding it whose
most important function is to symbolize the tribe), where traditionally
women have the specific role of greeting and men that of speaking. Pakeha
women's reading these structured roles within Westem paradigms of
what constitutes agency (speech rather than the ritual of greeting) led to
the debate regarding whether women should speak on the marae or not.
As Kathie Irwin has argued in "Towards Theories of Maori Feminisms,"
for many Maori, having the right to speak at the marae is not an issue and
never has been. It is viewed as Pakeha women's preoccupation, which is
irrelevant to Maori. Irwin nonetheless breaks the nature of speaking on
the marae down into several parts: karanga (greeting), waiata (song), tangi
(mourning), and whaikorero (speech making). "Protagonists in this debate
have recognized only whaikorero as speaking," asserts Irwin(12). In short,
the forms of speech in which women participate have not been recognized
by Pakeha women, since no such equivalent categories exist within
Pakeha feminism. Irwin is indignant that "the frustrations of the feminist
movement were visited upon [Maori] individuals and institutions alike.
The marae, the central most important institution in Maoridom, became
a target for the visitation for some of this feeling" (10). While Irwin rightly
identifies the inadequacy of Pakehacentric feminism to categorize, comprehend,
and explain the specificities of Maori practice, in this entire
debate over the right of whaikorero at the marae what is evident is that, as
in India, there has been no major shift in gender roles for the postcolonial
Maori. Irwin herself admits that a Pakeha man "who is tauiwi [a stranger,
a foreigner], not a speaker of the language, or tangata whenua in a Maori
sense of this word, is allowed to stand and whaikorero on the marae atea
[the area surrounding the actual building] simply because he is a man" (17).
*
The "spirituality" of her character had also to be stressed in contrast with the
innumerable surrenders which men were having t make to the pressures of
the material world. The need to adjust to the new conditions outside the home
had forced upon men a whole series of changes in their dress, food habits,
religious observances and social relations. Each of these capitulations now
had to be compensated by an assertion of spiritual purity on the part of
women. They must not eat, drink or smoke in the same way as men; they must
continue the observance of religious rituals which men were finding it difficult
to carry out; they must observe the cohesiveness of family life and the solidarity
to the kin to which men could not now devote much attention. The new
patriarchy advocated by nationalism conferred upon women the honour of a
new social responsibility, and by associating the task of "female emancipation"
with the historical goal of sovereign nationhood, bound them to a new,
and yet entirely legitimate, subordination. - Partha Chatterjee, "The
Nationalist Resolution of the Women's Question."
*
...I do not suggest that
Chatterjee's model precisely fits Maori gender roles. I want to underscore
that following a heated debate, Maori women were relocated in their
traditional space on the marae. The point I am making is that, both in
India and in Aotearoa/New Zealand, women function as a metaphor for
the nation and therefore become the scaffolding upon which men construct
national identity. In developing a concept of Indianness, Indian
men constrained Indian women in specific ways. Similarly, I think Maori
men have constructed the Maori nation/female to reflect their own identity.
In no sphere do Maori women exercise autonomous agency; nowhere
are they separate from Maori men or the Maori nation. All these issues
are implicated within each other.
This entry was originally posted at http://keieeeye.dreamwidth.org/138331.html. Feel free to comment there instead because LJ is a poo.
that I want to draw attention to just one issue that was hotly
contested during the 1980s, namely, the question of speaking rights on the
marae (a far more complex version of the Town Hall but with spiritual
connotations; the marae is a building and the land surrounding it whose
most important function is to symbolize the tribe), where traditionally
women have the specific role of greeting and men that of speaking. Pakeha
women's reading these structured roles within Westem paradigms of
what constitutes agency (speech rather than the ritual of greeting) led to
the debate regarding whether women should speak on the marae or not.
As Kathie Irwin has argued in "Towards Theories of Maori Feminisms,"
for many Maori, having the right to speak at the marae is not an issue and
never has been. It is viewed as Pakeha women's preoccupation, which is
irrelevant to Maori. Irwin nonetheless breaks the nature of speaking on
the marae down into several parts: karanga (greeting), waiata (song), tangi
(mourning), and whaikorero (speech making). "Protagonists in this debate
have recognized only whaikorero as speaking," asserts Irwin(12). In short,
the forms of speech in which women participate have not been recognized
by Pakeha women, since no such equivalent categories exist within
Pakeha feminism. Irwin is indignant that "the frustrations of the feminist
movement were visited upon [Maori] individuals and institutions alike.
The marae, the central most important institution in Maoridom, became
a target for the visitation for some of this feeling" (10). While Irwin rightly
identifies the inadequacy of Pakehacentric feminism to categorize, comprehend,
and explain the specificities of Maori practice, in this entire
debate over the right of whaikorero at the marae what is evident is that, as
in India, there has been no major shift in gender roles for the postcolonial
Maori. Irwin herself admits that a Pakeha man "who is tauiwi [a stranger,
a foreigner], not a speaker of the language, or tangata whenua in a Maori
sense of this word, is allowed to stand and whaikorero on the marae atea
[the area surrounding the actual building] simply because he is a man" (17).
*
The "spirituality" of her character had also to be stressed in contrast with the
innumerable surrenders which men were having t make to the pressures of
the material world. The need to adjust to the new conditions outside the home
had forced upon men a whole series of changes in their dress, food habits,
religious observances and social relations. Each of these capitulations now
had to be compensated by an assertion of spiritual purity on the part of
women. They must not eat, drink or smoke in the same way as men; they must
continue the observance of religious rituals which men were finding it difficult
to carry out; they must observe the cohesiveness of family life and the solidarity
to the kin to which men could not now devote much attention. The new
patriarchy advocated by nationalism conferred upon women the honour of a
new social responsibility, and by associating the task of "female emancipation"
with the historical goal of sovereign nationhood, bound them to a new,
and yet entirely legitimate, subordination. - Partha Chatterjee, "The
Nationalist Resolution of the Women's Question."
*
...I do not suggest that
Chatterjee's model precisely fits Maori gender roles. I want to underscore
that following a heated debate, Maori women were relocated in their
traditional space on the marae. The point I am making is that, both in
India and in Aotearoa/New Zealand, women function as a metaphor for
the nation and therefore become the scaffolding upon which men construct
national identity. In developing a concept of Indianness, Indian
men constrained Indian women in specific ways. Similarly, I think Maori
men have constructed the Maori nation/female to reflect their own identity.
In no sphere do Maori women exercise autonomous agency; nowhere
are they separate from Maori men or the Maori nation. All these issues
are implicated within each other.
This entry was originally posted at http://keieeeye.dreamwidth.org/138331.html. Feel free to comment there instead because LJ is a poo.