The value of this book lies in its relevance for museums as cultural arenas where indigenous and non-indigenous people as well as museum professionals interact in terms of legacy, representation, and cultural politics. Although Museums and Maori cites several case studies illustrating a number of instances of curatorial experimentation and practices, which ultimately transformed relations between Maori and Pakeha (non-Maori New Zealanders), in essence, it also becomes a composite case study or model for examining “the politics of collecting and exhibiting the culture of colonized peoples” internationally (6). Aside from providing an accurate critical analysis of the history of biculturalism as it is played out on New Zealand’s cultural stage, this book is of interest to folklorists and anthropologists in terms of thinking differently about decolonization, identity, indigeneity, and self-determination vis-à-vis material objects and display. Readers may find this book too specific to New Zealand’s situation, but concepts and realities addressed in the final part, such as advocating binationalism (two nations rather than two cultures or two peoples) or the eventuality of cultural centers replacing museums as tribal repositories for Maori collections, resonate with transnational movements concerning indigenous cultural stewardship. Pragmatically, this book asks, how do professionals engage with indigenous objects every day? And, how do they interact with indigenous communities?
The book is divided into three parts. The first part offers background on the history of collections and exhibitions of Maori artifacts, in addition to analyzing the transformation effected by “Te Maori,” a watershed exhibition in the 1980s, which not only changed how the world perceived Maori art and culture but also awakened New Zealanders and viewers in the United States to their iconographic and spiritual significance. Non-Maori museum professionals had to come to terms with Maori perceptions of art and cultural objects as living ancestors, taonga (treasures). The idea of “spiritual ownership” or “cultural ownership” emerged during this time as one of the key notions underlying negotiations between Pakeha and Maori, which became ingrained in all museum practices throughout New Zealand.
The second part of the book details biculturalism and its effect on museum management of heritage and exhibition policies. New Zealand is a bicultural country by mandate of the Crown dating to the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, when it was agreed that Maori allow the Crown to govern and develop British settlement while Maori were guaranteed full citizenship and protection of their interests and status (258). After the “Te Maori” exhibition, museums became the places where much of the cultural negotiations about cultural and intellectual property rights and sovereignty issues were addressed. This section goes into detail about what worked and what did not. The problems recall much of the debates occurring in the United States around multiculturalism. However, biculturalism was an essential practice which helped democratize museum practices and invited more Maori participation, particularly with reference to the idea of stewardship as realized in the appointment of kaitiaki or indigenous guardians of Maori artifacts.
The last set of chapters focus on the Maori conceptualizing a move away from biculturalism to tino rangatiratanga or self-determination. It analyzes contemporary and future directions of this political orientation and its implications for Maori and non-Maori populations, including Pacific Islanders, who were considered outside the Treaty of Waitangi’s original bicultural arrangement. Maori are tangata whenua, people of the land, and subsequent migrant populations are not given the same rights. This section has the most relevance for readers outside New Zealand. The issues raised and the suggestions entertained by various Maori and Pakeha scholars and museum professionals are applicable to ongoing cultural negotiations between indigenous and non-indigenous people in various former settler-colonies and nation states. Conal McCarthy cites parallels with Canada, which are instructive for folklorists working in any cultural context where there are power imbalances and silenced voices. There is also a pertinent discussion about pigeon-holing artists because of race and ethnicity. So, at the same time that Maori voices are articulating their desire for self-determination, contemporary Maori artists are expressing their individual preference for global recognition, which transcends labels of race and ethnicity within what scholars are calling a “post-indigenous” world (238).
In the concluding section McCarthy models his final response to a present and future working relationship between Maori and Pakeha within the museum context on the Maori worldview where “the past is the future but also the present” (244). In McCarthy’s words, “keeping the past in front of us and the future behind us, grants us the courage to think afresh and imagine new possibilities, based on history” (244). The author has sensitively and respectfully chronicled a page in museum history in New Zealand as well as offered critical insights applicable to other national and international situations where societies emerging into a post-settler state contend with indigenous politics of self-determination and sovereignty.
The inclusion of a map of New Zealand accompanied by a tribal map is quite helpful to the reader in identifying location and territory. The glossary and appendix containing the Treaty of Waitangi, an explanation of its meaning, and the 1993 Mataatua declaration on cultural and intellectual property rights of indigenous peoples, are crucial in understanding the basic documents which figure largely in implementation of indigenous historically based rights described and critiqued within the text.
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[Review length: 869 words • Review posted on January 25, 2018]