Journal of New Zealand & Pacific Studies - Volume 6, Issue 1, 2018

When ngā taonga pūoro (traditional instruments of the Māori) practitioners improvise music in the natural environment, they can be seen as explorers navigating and traversing the contours of the acoustic landscapes. As these practitioners come into dialogue with the non-humans of the natural environment, they are able to transform these relational experiences into sound phenomena, which in turn (re)create places that are meaningful to the practitioner and their audiences – human and otherwise. Taking a point of departure in a discussion between anthropologist Sebastian J. Lowe and renowned taonga pūoro practitioner Alistair Fraser, this article looks at how Fraser enters into Te Ao Māori (the Māori world or dimension) and comes into dialogue with the entities of Te Ao Tūroa (the natural world). In 2013, Fraser released an album called Rakiura (Stewart Island), which he made as part of a Creative New Zealand/ Department of Conservation (DOC) Wild Creations Artist Residency. Throughout his six-week field research together with local iwi Ngai Tahu in 2011, Alistair researched, made and performed taonga pūoro from the area of southern Aotearoa/New Zealand. This article, which takes Fraser’s album as an ethnographic case study, aims to challenge the way we explore, expand and extend our appreciation of acoustic Aotearoa, thereby potentially opening up new spaces for understanding, interacting and ultimately respecting our environments.

Authoritarian governments have increasingly hired US-based public relations companies to improve their image in the twenty-first century. These services were pioneered by Hill+Knowlton and Burson-Marsteller in the 1950s and the 1960s, but recently Washington-based Qorvis Communications has emerged as a popular choice. From its initial client base at the millennium of mostly oil-rich Middle Eastern dictatorships, Qorvis has branched out, including to the South Pacific. It was hired in 2011 by the military dictatorship in Fiji in advance of a constitutional review and elections there in 2014. Following a 2006 coup by military commander Voreqe ‘Frank’ Bainimarama, the regime suppressed domestic media with the threat of fines and prison terms contained in a repressive 2010 Media Decree. Blogs thus emerged as an underground press, and under Qorvis a pair of pro-regime blogs began to attack regime critics in an attempt to silence them. This case study examines their discourse involving three parties. Bruce Hill of the Radio Australia programme Pacific Beat came under regular criticism for his reporting on the regime by Fijiborn Australian blogger Graham Davis and retired New Zealand professor Crosbie Walsh. Constitutional Commission chair Yash Ghai was discredited in a smear campaign on these blogs and in the pro-regime Fiji Sun newspaper after delivering a draft constitution that would have restored human rights and reduced the role of the military. The author, who was then head of journalism at the University of the South Pacific, was forced to resign at the end of 2012 following similar attacks after he criticized the regime.

The practice of a ‘gender-smart safety’ is an important part of recognizing and responding to specific risks faced by women in workplaces. This is a relatively new concept within the discourse of workplace safety, and one that is challenging traditional views about what safety is, how it should be managed and who should be included in this management. This article explores the findings of a research project that looks at the safety of women who have experience of working in remote locations in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Drawing on both qualitative and quantitative data, it highlights some of the gaps that exist in employers’ responses to the risks faced by female employees. It identifies what businesses are doing to support women’s safety and how the careers of women have been affected by workplace safety risks (perceived and real). It discusses how a desire to protect women from risks and the call for ‘real men’ to support women are both approaches that fail to challenge gender norms, especially the lower social status of women. This research has helped inform new programming for the Business Coalition for Women in PNG. It has resulted in the development of a ‘Gender Smart Safety’ training programme that is now being offered to businesses to promote greater attention to the safety needs of their female employees.

The land has traditionally been a focus for New Zealand artists, for sculptors as well as for painters. Since the latter part of the twentieth century, artists have been increasingly articulate about issues around conservation and the ways that humankind interacts with the environment/human ecology. A leading artist in this approach is contemporary New Zealand sculptor and painter Nic Moon. Working often in remote parts of New Zealand, Moon observes the natural environment, asking what each specific place has seen and experienced, and choosing materials and processes that speak of the immediate terrain and the human stories of that place. As well as working with local communities and indigenous groups, she collaborates with scientists and ecologists to create intricately crafted sculptural works. Combined with dramatic lighting these artworks provide theatrical and immersive experiences.

This report focuses on projects in which Moon addresses aspects of New Zealand’s environmental history. Whether gallery or outdoor installations, temporary or permanent art works, the inspiration behind Moon’s creative practice work remains constant. She draws attention to the enormity of the task facing conservationists, particularly those working to preserve Fiordland, a vast and remote area of World Heritage landscape, the ‘jewel in the crown’ of New Zealand’s great wilderness National Parks. There are two distinct aspects to these artworks. The first is the inspiration provided by conservation projects. The second makes reference to human intervention in the land, spotlighting historical and contemporary settlement, farming and hunting practices. Through it all, Moon weaves together the threads of her research on the natural environment, deforestation and human transformation of the land.

Ka Ngaro Te Reo: Māori Language under Siege in the Nineteenth Century, Paul Moon (2016) Dunedin: Otago University Press, 336 pp., ISBN 978 1 9273 2241 3 (pbk), NZ$39.95

A Hidden Economy – Māori in the Privatised Military Industry, Maria Bargh (2015) Wellington: Huia, 188 pp., ISBN 978 1 7755 0197 8 (pbk), NZ$45

The Prison Diary of A.C. Barrington: Dissent and Conformity in Wartime New Zealand, John Pratt (2016) Dunedin: Otago University Press, 280 pp., ISBN 978 1 9273 2231 4 (pbk), NZ$39.95

To the Memory: New Zealand’s War Memorials, Jock Phillips (2016) Nelson: Potton & Burton, 246 pp., ISBN 978 0 9475 0302 4 (hbk), NZ$59.99

Memorializing Pearl Harbor: Unfinished Histories and the Work of Remembrance, Geoffrey M. White (2016) Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 352 pp., ISBN 978 0 8223 6102 2 (pbk), USD$26.95

Unearthly Landscapes: New Zealand’s Early Cemeteries, Churchyards and Urupā, Stephen Deed (2015) Dunedin: University of Otago Press, 240 pp., ISBN 978 1 9273 2218 5 (pbk), NZ$49.95

Domination and Resistance: The United States and the Marshall Islands During the Cold War, Martha Smith-Norris (2016) Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 264 pp., ISBN 978 0 8248 4762 3 (hbk), US$62

Articulating Rapa Nui: Polynesian Cultural Politics in a Latin American Nation-State, Riet Delsing (2015) Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 304 pp., ISBN 978 0 8248 5168 2 (pbk), US$59

Polynesian Panthers, The Crucible Years 1971–74, Melani Anae, Leilani Tamu AND Lautofa Iuli (2015) Wellington: Huia, 152 pp., ISBN 978 1 7755 0205 0 (pbk), NZ$40

A Constitution for Aotearoa New Zealand, Geoffrey Palmer and Andrew Butler (2016) Wellington: Victoria University Press, 256 pp., ISBN 978 1 7765 6086 8 (pbk), NZ$25

Human Rights in New Zealand: Emerging Faultlines, Judy McGregor, Sylvia Bell and Margaret Wilson (2016) Wellington: Bridget Williams Books, 250 pp., ISBN 978 0 9474 9274 8 (pbk), NZ$50

Democracy in New Zealand, Raymond Miller (2015) Auckland: Auckland University Press, 288 pp., ISBN 978 1 8694 0835 0 (pbk), NZ$45

Labour: The New Zealand Labour Party 1916–2016, Peter Franks and Jim McAloon (2016) Wellington: Victoria University Press, 335 pp., ISBN 978 1 7765 6074 5 (pbk), NZ$50

Extraordinary Anywhere: Essays on Place from Aotearoa New Zealand, Ingrid Horrocks and Cherie Lacey (eds) (2016) Wellington: Victoria University Press, 222 pp., ISBN 978 1 7765 6070 7 (pbk), NZ$40

Wellington Summer Shakespeare 1983–2017, David Lawrence (2017) Wellington: Victoria University Press and the Summer Shakespeare Trust, 128 pp., ISBN 978 1 7765 6098 1 (pbk), NZ$35