Ngā puia o Ihumātao (The volcanoes of Ihumātao)

Rebecca Ann Hobbs Doctorate of Fine Art Thesis (2017)

ST PAUL St is honoured to share Rebecca Ann Hobbs’ doctoral thesis with you. Hobbs’ research and project has been a powerful example for us of a commitment to working as a tauiwi (non-Māori) ally or accomplice to Māori in their pursuit for Tino Rangatiratanga. We would like to acknowledge Ihumātao mana whenua and to thank Rebecca for taking up our invitation to share this important work on our website.

Abstract:

This project attempts to engage in a “‘practice-led-research [sic]’ (Nelson 37) process to create collaborative art works that focus on the particulars of ngā puia o Ihumātao, namely Maungataketake, Ōtuataua, Waitomokia and the wāhi tapu (sacred) Te Puketaapapatanga a Hape. The foundation of this research is to practically engage with specific Kaupapa Māori Practices that Linda Tuhiwai Smith has identified, through a kanohi ki te kanohi (face-to-face) “conversational” (Taiaroa, sec 2) consultation process with mana whenua of Ihumātao (Māori with traditional custodial authority for Ihumātao), Te Wai-ō-Hua. This project was initiated as a solidarity attempt with Walter Mignolo’s decolonial proviso of “confronting and delinking from…the colonial matrix of power” (xxvii). In support of my intent, as tauiwi (non-Māori), I provide links between L. Smith’s Decolonizing Methodologies and the ‘hyphen between colonizer-indigene’ (473), which Kuni Kaa Jenkins (Ngāti Porou) and Alison Jones (Pākehā) identify as a creative coming together in the hyphen area between colonizer and indigene.”