Poetry and Identity in New Zealand and Palestine
Maori and Middle Eastern Spoken Word Artists Question Authority
Jan 24, 2009
Separated by geography, religion and history, New Zealand Maori poets during the colonial era and Palestinian poets in the 20th-century Middle East have been alike in using creative expression to safeguard cultural identity and raise social and political questions.
A study by Christine Tremewan of Maori poetry in the Te Waka newspapers (published between 1863 and 1879), provides evidence of a vibrant, challenging artform (Tremewan, in Curnow, Hopa and McRae (editors), Rere atu, taku manu. Auckland: University Press, 2002). The published records of spoken or sung poetry forms (such as karakia, haka or waiata) show work rich in tradition and allusions to mythology, religion and history, but often adjusted to take on the European-introduced social order.
For example, waiata aroha were love songs (sometimes with a specific sexual content) composed by women who were grieving dead or otherwise departed partners. In the 19th century these lyrics were sometimes applied to a dignitary departing from an important meeting, "or to a former ally who was now joining the opposite side".
Maori Assert Cultural Identity Through Poetry
Tremewan cites a particular incident that indicates the complexity of the interaction between Maori creative expression and its challenge to the colonial authority. At a major coming-together of the Ngati Porou iwi (tribal group) in July, 1872, organiser and leader Major Ropata performed a karakia that used the symbolism of the kumara (a type of sweet potato with cultural significance) as the food of peace, while the fernroot was cited as the traditional sustenance of war parties. Ropata was making an ethical point, and seemed to be advocating the abandonment of the fernroot, and a time of reconciliation.
The protracted correspondence in Te Waka Maori that resulted from the newspaper's report on the meeting eventually wore down the patience of the European editors, who observed that "it was only a kumara". Tremewan points out that the debate was really about political issues, "the right to say who had been the first to come to these shores and who should be consulted on matters of importance"
Desert Songs: Protest Poets of the Middle East
In a similar manner, Palestinian poets have tapped into a strong tradition of spoken word and song to reinforce identity and challenge authority. I. Pappe (The Modern Middle East. New York: Routledge, 2005) observes that "under some of the more oppressive twentieth-century regimes, poets were the only ones to express forbidden themes and identities".
Pappe gives the example of Iskandar al Houry al-Batajali, who adapted the Qasida, a traditional epic poetry form, to lament "the passivity of the Palestinians in the face of the Zionist invasion".
"Formal" Poetry and Political Engagement
Contrary to the example of poets who have found refuge from political and social upheaval in formalism, in the technicalities of their art (a tendency discussed in the article Poetry, Politics and Hard Times) , many Palestinian and Maori poets have used word and song to engage with their environment. The Syrian poet Ali Ahmad Said, Pappe observes, always had an interest in "the nexus between poetic creation and the ambition to make the world a better place for human beings". In his mature work the poet (whose pen-name was Adonis), "was transcending periods, civilisations, genres and geography to produce poems that conveyed...his vision of the world we live in".
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