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Korimako and Macrocarpa Trees: Exploring Māori Experiences of Place through a Lens

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In traditional Maori culture there was no distinction between self and place—you were where you were born and lived, and places were inscribed with history, myth and memory. Adopted and brought up Pakeha (New Zealand European), I discovered at the age of 30 I am Ngāi Tahu. On a creative practice journey to explore adoption longings I took my camera to Riverton/Aparima, the birthplace of my Ngāi Tahu tūpuna (ancestors), seeking connection. Disappointed at this bland town, I felt disconnected, nothing. However, with the lens to my eye, a medium, I achieved a peculiar and intense connection in two of the locations I filmed. In a stand of ancient macrocarpa trees and in a section of bush I unexpectedly felt completely in place, as if I belonged. I argue that in these moments I experienced something akin to Maori experiences of place.

Keywords: ; adoption root journey ; Aotearoa/New Zealand ; autoethnography ; belonging and connection ; closed stranger adoption ; extra-temporal moments ; Māori experiences of place ; New Zealand birds ; Ngāi Tahu ; self in connection ; the lens

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Korimako and Macrocarpa Trees: Exploring Māori Experiences of Place through a Lens
Intellect , 66 (2023); https://doi.org/10.1386/9781789387438_8
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/content/books/9781789387438.c06
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References

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     [Google Scholar]
  8. Brookfield, H. ,, Brown, S. D. ,, & Reavey, P. . ( 2008;). Vicarious and post-memory practices in adopting families: The re-production of the past through photography and narrative. . Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 18 (5), 474–491. https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.960
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     [Google Scholar]
  16. MacDougall, D. . ( 1998). Transcultural cinema. Princeton University Press;.
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  18. Malpas, J. . ( 2018). Place and experience: A philosophical topography. Routledge;.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Murton, B. . ( 2012;). Being in the place world: Toward a Māori ‘Geographical Self’. . Journal of Cultural Geography, 29 (1), 87–104. https://doi.org/10.1080/08873631.2012.655032
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     [Google Scholar]
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  22. O'Regan, T. ,, Palmer, L. ,, & Langton, M. . ( 2006). Keeping the fires burning: Grievance and aspiration in the Ngai Tahu Settlement. . In M. Langton . (Ed.), Settling with indigenous people: modern treaty and agreement-making (pp. 44–65). Federation Press;.
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  25. Roberts, R. M. ,, & Wills, P. R. . ( 1998). Understanding Maori epistemology: A scientific perspective. . In H. Wautischer . (Ed.), Tribal epistemologies: Essays in the philosophy of anthropology. Routledge;.
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  26. Rogers, C. . ( 2019;). New histories: Creating video work to fill adoption absences. . The Journal of New Zealand Studies, (NS29). https://doi.org/10.26686/jnzs.v0iNS29.6263
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Russell, K. . ( 2005). Landscape: Perceptions of Kāi Tahu i mua, āianei, ā muri ake. In Indigenous knowledges conference, University of Auckland. http://www.maramatanga.ac.nz/sites/default/files/TKC%202005.pdf#page=161
  28. Smith, L. T. . ( 2012). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples (, 2nd. ed.). Zed Books Ltd;.
     [Google Scholar]
  29. Wanhalla, A. . ( 2013). Matters of the heart: A history of interracial marriage in New Zealand. Auckland University Press;.
     [Google Scholar]
  30. Wyse, S. . ( 2002). Colonising her cultural identity: Geographies of a hybrid identity in colonial Turanga [ Doctoral dissertation, Massey University;]. Theses and dissertations. https://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/6387
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Yngvesson, B. . ( 2003;). Going ‘Home’: Adoption, loss of bearings, and the mythology of roots. . Social Text, 21 (1), 7–27.
     [Google Scholar]

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