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‘The Death of Koro Paka: “Traditional” Māori Patriarchy’
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- Author(s) / Creator(s)
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This article is underpinned by the simple question of what knowledge is produced about Māori men and why. In particular, it deconstructs the invention, authentication, and re-authentication of \"traditional\" Māori patriarchy. It begins by examining how Māori patriarchy was invented and authenticated through the hybridization of Māori and British masculine cultures, especially through the early colonial education of a select few Māori boys, who were subjects of a British public schooling technique. The article draws from this historical analysis to demonstrate how Māori patriarchy continues to be authenticated in today's popular culture. Here, the contemporary re-authentication of Māori patriarchy is drawn attention to through a deconstruction of the film Whale Rider. This film analysis argues that Whale Rider deploys a dangerous conflation of representation and reality, which ultimately re-authenticates the invented tradition of Māori patriarchy. The article is less concerned with denouncing particular tropes of Māori men as \"false\" and more with how such \"truths\" have come to be privileged; it also seeks to uncloak the processes that produce Māori masculine subjectivities.
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- Date created
- 2008
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- Subjects / Keywords
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- Type of Item
- Article (Published)
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- License
- © 2008 Brendan Hokowhitu. This version of this article is open access and can be downloaded and shared. The original author(s) and source must be cited. *** This license can be used for any item that the copyright is not clear (i.e. when a Creative Commons license has not been chosen or no specific information is listed about what the user can do with the work).