“Going native”: a case study of cultural appropriation in a settler society, with particular reference to the activities of Johannes Andersen in New Zealand during the first half of the twentieth century

Abstract

One mode of ‘indigenization’ in settler societies is cultural appropriation. This involves the utilisation of elements of the culture of the indigenous peoples by incorporating these elements in the signifying systems of the settler society, without the authorisation of the indigenes. The present study exemplifies some of the discursive strategies of cultural appropriation employed by the settler society in New Zealand through focusing on the activities of Johannes Andersen (1873-1962) in the first half of the twentieth century. In seeking to authenticate himself as an autochthonous New Zealander, Andersen, like other Pakeha around 1900, turned to Maori subjects for prose, verse, and art. His knowledge of Maori culture was derived from books, not from contact with Maori people. After the Great War, encouraged by the prominent ethnologist Elsdon Best, and with the collaboration and authorisation of Maori, especially Apirana Ngata, who sought assistance from sympathetic Pakeha, Andersen recorded traditional lore during four brief visits to Maori communities. This was the limit of his close contact with Maori people, but it provided much of the basis for his reputation among Pakeha as an authority on the Maori, an authority emphasized by his books, lectures, and broadcasts, in which he encouraged other Pakeha to develop an interest in Maori subjects. Many Pakeha came to ‘know’ the Maori through the reductive constructions of authoritative commentators such as Andersen. Andersen’s influence extended to scholarly anthropological circles through his editorship of the Polynesian Society Journal. As editor he privileged versions of New Zealand traditional history which accorded with his own intellectual preferences, and deflected revisionist interpretations. The divergence between Ngata’s hope of enlisting the aid of Pakeha for Maori purposes and Pakeha desire to appropriate Maori cultural resources for their own use, is particularly evident in the case of Nga Moteatea, the classic collection of Maori ‘songs’. Andersen, whose failure to learn the Maori language blocked his access to the material, persuaded Ngata to prepare a bilingual version. He also attempted to invest the translated ‘songs’ with those qualities which he considered to characterise English literature. Shortly thereafter, Ngata, critical of a range of Andersen’s activities, acquiesced in a move by Pakeha critics of Andersen to replace him as editor of the Polynesian Society Journal. Andersen was but one of many Pakeha who incorporated aspects of Maori culture into Pakeha signifying systems in an attempt to develop a sense of identity. The practice has significant implications for intercultural relationships, and in recent decades some Maori have expressed resistance to cultural appropriation.