Repurposing, Recycling, Revisioning: Pacific Arts and the (Post)colonial
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25120/etropic.19.1.2020.3733Keywords:
Pacific artists, food colonisation, reappropriation, speaking back, cultureAbstract
Taking a broad approach to the concept of recycling, I refer to a range of works, from sculpture to film, street art and poetry, which depict issues of importance to Indigenous peoples faced with the (after) effects of colonisation. Does the use of repurposed materials and/or the knowledge that these objects are the work of Indigenous creators change the way we respond to these works, and if so, how?
References
Arahanga, B., Aumua, A.J., Freshwater, M., Fuemana, D., George, M., Guttenbeil-Likiliki, O., McCartney, M., Whippy, N. & Whippy, S. (Directors). (2019). Vai. [Motion picture]. Vendetta Films.
Burns, W.C.G. (2002). Pacific Island Developing Country Water Resources and Climate Change. The World’s Water 2002-2003 (pp. 113-131). Island Press. https://pacinst.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/worlds_water_2002_chapter53.pdf
Centre des Métiers d’Art de Polynésie française (n.d.). Tokai Devatine Installation https://www.facebook.com/831550423574058/photos/tokai-devatine-installation/1987278298001259/
City Gallery Wellington / Te Whare Toi (n. d.) Past Exhibition: Bottled Ocean, 17 May-7 August 1994. https://citygallery.org.nz/exhibitions/bottled-ocean/
Devatine, J-D. T. (2020). Personal communication.
Errington, F. & Gewertz, D. (2008). Pacific Island Gastrologies: Following the Flaps. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Society (N.S.), 14 (3), 590-608. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20203687
Gifford, A. (2006) Man on a Pacific Mission. New Zealand Herald. 21 November. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=10411775
GSUTV (n.d.). Special Edition: The Plastic Gyre. [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmdHoS63hPE
Hay, J. (2005). Povi Christkeke by Michel Tuffery. Christchurch Art Gallery / Te Puna o Waiwhetū. https://christchurchartgallery.org.nz/blog/collection/2005/06/povi-christkeke-by-michel-tuffery
Herman, L. E. (1998). Trash Formations. Recycled Materials in Contemporary American Art and Design. Whatcom Museum of History and Art.
Hollingshead, I. (2011). Tales of Cannibalism from the South Pacific. The Telegraph. 18 October. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/8831702/Tales-of-cannibalism-from-the-South-Pacific.html
HTJ Artworks (n.d.). HTJ Artworks website. http://www.htjartworks.com/
Jetñil-Kijiner, K. (2017). Iep Jaltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter. University of Arizona Press.
Kaur, A. (2019). A ‘Rough Road’ as Military Buildup Projects are in ‘Full Force’. USA Today Pacific Daily News, May 23. https://eu.guampdn.com/story/news/local/2019/05/23/guam-camp-blaz-us-military-asia-pacific/1200366001/
Kirtland, K. A., Cho, P., & Geiss, L. S. (2015). Diabetes Among Asians and Native Hawaiians or other Pacific Islanders – United States, 2011-2014. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. November 20, 64(45), 1261-1266. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6445a2.htm?scid=mm6445a2w
Krier, B. A. (1988). Trash Furniture. Los Angeles Times, 14 August. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-08-28-vw-1424-story.html
Le Boisselier, V. & Lecas, M. (2018). En Polynésie française, la multiplication des maladies fait craindre pour les enfants. Slate, 12 septembre. http://www.slate.fr/story/166856/polynesie-francaise-nucleaire-irradiation-heredite
Mallon, S. (2012). Urban Art and Popular Culture. In P. Brunt & N. Thomas (Eds.), Art in Oceania. A New History (pp. 440-465). Thames and Hudson.
Mallon, S. & Fulimalo Pereira, P. (Eds.) (1997) Speaking in Colour. Conversations with Artists of Pacific Island Heritage. Te Papa Press.
Narula, S. K. (2016). Imperial Scraps: Thanks for Mutton, New Zealand: Your Fatty Meat Products are Making Tonga Obese. Quartz, 20 January. https://qz.com/597669/thanks-for-the-mutton-new-zealand-your-fatty-meat-products-are-making-tonga-obese/
NPR (National Public Radio) (2010). A Bottled-Water Drama In Fiji. 1 December. https://www.npr.org/2010/12/01/131733493/A-Bottled-Water-Drama-In-Fiji
Perez, C. S. (n.d.). Spam’s Carbon Footprint. Poets.org. https://poets.org/poem/spams-carbon-footprint
Smith, M. R. (2017). Indigenous Graffiti and Street Art as Resistance. In S. H. Awad & B. Wagoner (Eds.), Street Art of Resistance (pp. 251-274). Palgrave.
Spivak, G. C. (1995). Can the Subaltern Speak? In B. Ashcroft, G. Griffiths & H. Tiffin (Eds.), The Postcolonial Studies Reader (pp. 24-35). The Psychology Press.
Split This Rock (n.d.). Craig Santos Perez, Spam’s Carbon Footprint. Split This Rock. https://www.splitthisrock.org/poetry-database/poem/spams-carbon-footprint
Stevenson, K. (2008). The Frangipani is Dead. Contemporary Pacific Art in New Zealand. Huia Books.
Street Art Avenue (2015, 12 Mai). https://street-art-avenue.com/2015/05/julien-seth-malland-ono-u-festival-tahiti-11326
Taylor, R., Zimmer, P., Naseri, T., Hufanga, S., Tukana, I., Magliano, D. J., Lin, S., Linhart, C., & Morrell, S. (2016). Erroneous Inflation of Diabetes Prevalence: Are There Global Implications? Journal of Diabetes, 8 (6), November, 766-769. https://doi.org/10.1111/1753-0407.12447
Te Ara / The Encyclopedia of New Zealand (n. d.). Bottled Ocean.
https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/44240/bottled-ocean-1994
Te Papa Tongarewa National Museum of New Zealand (n.d.). Pisupo lua afe (Corned beef 2000) by Michel Tuffery. https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/topic/1110
Te Pū Centre des Métiers d’Art (2016). Manava: art contemporain polynésien: Tahiti [catalogue de l’exposition qui s’est tenue du 8 juin au 28 septembre 2013 à Tahiti et du 6 décembre au 25 janvier 2015 à WUHO]. Te Pū Centre des Métiers d’Art.
Thomas, N. (1996). From Exhibition to Exhibitionism: Recent Polynesian Representations of ‘Otherness’. The Contemporary Pacific, 8 (2), 319-348.
Tuffery, M. (n.d.). Sculpture. http://micheltuffery.co.nz/portfolio/sculpture/
Tukuitonga, C. (2016). Diabetes Remains Major Health Challenge in the Pacific. Devpolicyblog (Australian National University). 26 October.
https://devpolicy.org/diabetes-remains-major-health-challenge-pacific-20161026/
Turgovnick, M. (1990). Gone Primitive. Savage Intellects, Modern Lives. University of Chicago Press.
Wikipédia (n.d.). Julien Malland (Seth). https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julien_Malland_(Seth)
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors who submit articles to this journal agree to the following terms:
1. Authors are responsible for ensuring that any material that has influenced the research or writing has been properly cited and credited both in the text and in the Reference List (Bibliography). Contributors are responsible for gaining copyright clearance on figures, photographs or lengthy quotes used in their manuscript that have been published elsewhere.
2. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) License that allows others to share and adapt the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
3. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository, or publish it in a book), with proper acknowledgement of the work's initial publication in this journal.
4. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (see The Effect of Open Access or The Open Access Citation Advantage). Where authors include such a work in an institutional repository or on their website (i.e., a copy of a work which has been published in eTropic, or a pre-print or post-print version of that work), we request that they include a statement that acknowledges the eTropic publication including the name of the journal, the volume number and a web-link to the journal item.
5. Authors should be aware that the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) License permits readers to share (copy and redistribute the work in any medium or format) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the work) for any purpose, even commercially, provided they also give appropriate credit to the work, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. They may do these things in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests you or your publisher endorses their use.