Description
Girl of New Zealand presents a nuanced insight into the way violence and colonial attitudes shaped the representation of Maori women and girls. Michelle Erai examines more than thirty images of Maori women alongside the records of early missionaries and settlers in Aotearoa, as well as comments by archivists and librarians, to shed light on how race, gender, and sexuality have been ascribed to particular bodies.
Viewed through Maori, feminist, queer, and film theories, Erai show how photographs such as Girl of New Zealand (1793) and later photographs, cartoons, and travel advertising created and deployed a colonial optic. Girl of New Zealand reveals how the phantasm of the Maori woman has shown up in historical images, how such images shape our imagination, and how impossible it has become to maintain the delusion of the 'innocent eye.' Erai argues that the process of ascribing race, gender, sexuality, and class to imagined bodies can itself be a kind of violence.
In the wake of the Me Too movement and other feminist projects, Erai's timely analysis speaks to the historical foundations of negative attitudes toward Indigenous Maori women in the eyes of colonial 'others' - outsiders from elsewhere who reflected their own desires and fears in their representations of the Indigenous inhabitants of Aotearoa, New Zealand. Erai resurrects Maori women from objectification and locates them firmly within Maori whanau and communities.
About the Author
Michelle Erai was an assistant professor of gender studies at University of California, Los Angeles. She is originally from Whangarei, Aotearoa, and is descended from the tribes of Ngapuhi and Ngati Porou.
Reviews
Girl of New Zealand presents a nuanced insight into the ways in which violence and colonial looking shaped the representation of Maori women and girls. Erai focuses on eight different depictions to think through the effects that colonial violence had on their construction and reception. In this way the author resurrects these women from objectification to being firmly located within Maori whanau and communities." - Ngarino Ellis, author of A Whakapapa of Tradition: A Century of Ngati Porou Carving, 1830-1930
"Catching the tide of a resurgence of women's issues in the wake of #MeToo and other feminist projects, Michelle Erai's Girl of New Zealand is timely. Erai's analysis speaks to the historical foundations of negative attitudes toward Indigenous Maori women in the eyes of colonial 'others,' outsiders from elsewhere who reflected their own desires and fears in their representations of the Indigenous inhabitants of Aotearoa." - Arini Loader, Victoria University of Wellington
Book Information
ISBN 9780816537020
Author Michelle Erai
Format Paperback
Page Count 200
Imprint University of Arizona Press
Publisher University of Arizona Press
Weight(grams) 387g
Viewed through Maori, feminist, queer, and film theories, Erai show how photographs such as Girl of New Zealand (1793) and later photographs, cartoons, and travel advertising created and deployed a colonial optic. Girl of New Zealand reveals how the phantasm of the Maori woman has shown up in historical images, how such images shape our imagination, and how impossible it has become to maintain the delusion of the 'innocent eye.' Erai argues that the process of ascribing race, gender, sexuality, and class to imagined bodies can itself be a kind of violence.
In the wake of the Me Too movement and other feminist projects, Erai's timely analysis speaks to the historical foundations of negative attitudes toward Indigenous Maori women in the eyes of colonial 'others' - outsiders from elsewhere who reflected their own desires and fears in their representations of the Indigenous inhabitants of Aotearoa, New Zealand. Erai resurrects Maori women from objectification and locates them firmly within Maori whanau and communities.
About the Author
Michelle Erai was an assistant professor of gender studies at University of California, Los Angeles. She is originally from Whangarei, Aotearoa, and is descended from the tribes of Ngapuhi and Ngati Porou.
Reviews
Girl of New Zealand presents a nuanced insight into the ways in which violence and colonial looking shaped the representation of Maori women and girls. Erai focuses on eight different depictions to think through the effects that colonial violence had on their construction and reception. In this way the author resurrects these women from objectification to being firmly located within Maori whanau and communities." - Ngarino Ellis, author of A Whakapapa of Tradition: A Century of Ngati Porou Carving, 1830-1930
"Catching the tide of a resurgence of women's issues in the wake of #MeToo and other feminist projects, Michelle Erai's Girl of New Zealand is timely. Erai's analysis speaks to the historical foundations of negative attitudes toward Indigenous Maori women in the eyes of colonial 'others,' outsiders from elsewhere who reflected their own desires and fears in their representations of the Indigenous inhabitants of Aotearoa." - Arini Loader, Victoria University of Wellington
Book Information
ISBN 9780816537020
Author Michelle Erai
Format Paperback
Page Count 200
Imprint University of Arizona Press
Publisher University of Arizona Press
Weight(grams) 387g
