ACTIVATINGTHE VA

How can a body act as a tool for decolonising performance? As an artist, my body has become a powerful space for my art practice and cultural heritage to come together, the past and the present. My Polynesian body is the genealogical vessel that collapses time and space, allowing our ancestors and the atua to have a presence in the Now. I live through them, and they live through me at the point of performance. In this, I follow the Ta/Va philosophy (Mahina, Wendt, Refiti, Tavita) as it has been vigorously circulated and exchanged for well over a decade within Polynesian academic, cultural and artistic circles. With this in mind (and body), I will present a visceral experience featuring aural, visual and performative elements, weaving in and out of spoken words, both academic and artistic, to demonstrate the power of the body as a vehicle to create works of VA'rt.

Mousse magazine

Performance research has become a dynamic field in contemporary art of late. Special conferences, publications, exhibitions and museum departments have been established in the name of performance as a fertile area for historical revision and new art development. Generally speaking, the basic terms of the field are given as space, time and the body-but how are those categories constituted? Which time? Whose space? What bodies?

The environmental question is of the most debated issues of our time. As the philosopher Bannon says, a possible solution to this problem lies in rethinking the Western idea of space, especially nature, which is based on mastery. (Bannon, 2012) This paper presents the Heideggerian concept of “dwelling” (Heidegger, 1971) in opposition to “mastering” as a starting point for the development of a new relationship between humans and the surrounding environment based on the acknowledgment of all its elements, humans and non-humans, seen as active parts involved in a dynamic totality (Latour, 2004; Bennet, 2009). The present paper aims to show how it is possible to learn to dwell through Performance Art, in particular site specific and long durational performances, according to a performative methodology based on specific criteria. Ana Mendieta's "Siluetas" will be presented as a performative example of dwelling, because of its ability to build direct and deep connections with places by going beyond hierarchy and fixed ideas about space and nature.

Book Chapter in A. Refiti, T. Engels-Schwarzpaul & L. Lopesi (eds.), Vā in Aotearoa: Moana Cosmopolitans' Imaginaries, 2024

In this paper, the callings and projections of vā beyond is an expression of a desire to extend the assumed predominantly socially-framed relatings of vā. Pacific peoples and communities appreciate life forces across entities in the world. This paper is a consideration of vā’s post–human speculative potential. Post–humanist thought and theorising within the Eurowestern academe, conversely, has not always appreciated Indigenous concepts or framings grounded in the spiritual and unseen. My intention in this talatalanoa is to probe further into vā’s beyond–ness–like nature and rhythms in the vahanoa, a necessary sense–making that draws meaning from our Indigenous vernacular and embodied sensibilities. Vā’s potentialities lie in its simultaneity, through the considerations of its vibrant, dynamic, fluid, and diverse relational interconnections across time–contexts, spaces, and places. Such representations of vā can be expressed through the projections of its relational rhythms across and through physical, real–time, or tangible spaces beyond into the intangible, including the online and the more–than–human world time–contexts and spaces across the moana.

Dance Research Journal, 2007

is most often noted for her pivotal book The Anthropology of Dance (1977), which provides an in-depth account of the theoretical frameworks and research methods of dance anthropology. In her most recent book, Anthropology of the Performing Arts: Artistry, Virtuosity, and Interpretation in a Cross-Cultural Perspective, Royce seeks to distinguish artistry from virtuosity through a cross-cultural examination of performance, art, and artists. In this quest she is inspired by contemporary discourses in dance studies that refer to dance, and performance in general, as embodied knowledge. Specifically, she acknowledges being influenced by the writing of such dance scholars as Sally Ann Ness, Barbara Browning, Yvonne Daniel,Julie Taylor, and Marta Savigliano (4). While Royce focuses heavily on ballet with artists from Fokine to Baryshnikov, she also references dances of the Tewa Indians, dance and theater of Japan and Bali, as well as the art of Marcel Marceau. Her interest is not limited to defining artistry and virtuosity. Her deliberation on performance extends beyond these topics to questions concerning audience reception, innovation, and altered states of performance. In the size of her aspirations, Royce's project is similar to that of Eugenio Barba and Nicola Savarese's work.Dictionary of Theatre Anthropology: The Secret Art of the Performer (iggi), which attempts to define a transnational vocabulary of performance. In style of presentation, Royce's work is more closely allied with the aesthetic contemplations of Susan Sontag (2001).

2009

Bernida Webb-Binder I used to paint on black, so that things emerged from out of the dark, figures from the past. Lily Laita quoted in Speaking in Colour: Conversations with Artists of Pacific Island Heritage reated in 2000, Lily Laita's painting Va i Ta Taeao Lalata E Aunoa Ma Gagana remains a timeless illustration of the vibrancy of Pacific Islander identity through space and time (figure 1). 1 In this large-scale polyptych, Laita maps the infinite possibilities relating to Pacific identity through the medium of visual storytelling, an integral component of her artistic practice. Specifically, Va i Ta is a narrative exploration of the ways in which the temporal and spatial nuances of the vā (space between) have shaped Pacific identity from its island origins to the Pacific Islander diaspora in Aotearoa/New Zealand. In the painting, Laita touches on five themes: how notions of space and time are related to her artistic practice; how continuous narrative can be suggested without a reliance on sequential order; how mythology plays a role in continuing sociocultural rituals; how land is an enduring symbol of identity; and how art conveys the different facets of identity as connected to multiple geographical spheres. Accordingly, Laita's Va i Ta represents and embodies "the space between"-that is, the space between where Pacific identity is negotiated and expressed in an Aotearoa/New Zealand context. 2 STORYTELLING IN THE VĀ In her role as visual artist, Laita uses storytelling, an indigenous mode of communication that features in Aotearoa/New Zealand and across the Pacific to inform her work. In Va i Ta, a dynamically gestural painting, the artist organizes compositional space through the play of color, light, and shadow on canvas. In the painting, Laita captures the performance of Pacific identity as it exists in the vā, creating a kinetic and tactile space by layering oil and shellac, achieving stunning multidimensional effects. As she explained: "Working with oils and C The Space Between [26] working on white, you talk about depth more than surface and especially working in transparent thin glaze. By doing that it creates more depth, it's illusion, the sense of that and within that I can create more stories" (Laita 2001).

2019

All performance events, and particularly those of General Assembly of Interested Parties (GAIP) participated in from 2014 until 2019, constitute the work upon which I have based reports, extrapolations and interpretations in text, resulting in this dissertation. The original works, in varying physical modes and carried out in wide-ranging contexts, were undertaken for their own sake, as creative imperatives. That work has come and gone across time. Documentation from this activity is a new work and experience in itself (in the making or witnessing) even though its existence stems from the original event, it is freed of obligation to simply record what happened. Writing, directly referencing or stimulated by these performative events, exists as an improvisation upon and around memory of the original work. Much, but not all, of the vast quantity and array of original work was documented, to some extent. The format of documentation exists as video, still image, audio file and physical object. As the reader will discover, the digital file containing the dissertation text also contains digital images, external video links, and is a ‘designed space’ that takes notice of the aesthetic experience of reading text in combination with textual meaning. This approach is in keeping for an examination of an holistic creative practice. There are three audio files of source material from each year of data gathering (2014-16) and one video file that together with all linked media and text, constitute the thesis. (External links for the three audio files and video file can be found on pages 153 and 154 of this document).

2020

Drawing on nautical notions of traversing the Pacific Ocean, we seek to encourage Mäori and Pasifika researchers to come together in purposeful and transforming ways, not to further homogenise Oceanic identities but, as many sang in active resistance in Aotearoa New Zealand during the 1990s, Kia kotahi ra Te MoananuiaKiwa (“Unite as one like the Pacific Ocean”). We present Väkä as a methodology that emerged from a research fellowship focused on Mäori and Pasifika student success at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Conceptually, we lash together the Pasifika term vä—relational time and space—with the Mäori term kä—to ignite, to consider, to be in action. Bound together we forward Väkä methodology as a way to ignite Mäori and Pasifika researcher relationships, and to share ideas, resources and “crew members” in allegiances that work to positively support our different and similar educational agenda, and seek transforming change for our diverse and complex communities.

Da compreensão da arte ao ensino da história da arte, hoje.

Evidently, we are again faced with symbolic violence, albeit with the best of intentions. Nevertheless, the problems we have been discussing—the forceful transfer of cultural patterns from one culture to another—is conspicuous even here. The curators of Magiciens de la Terre might be charged with the violent transfer of creations that, divested from their original context, are likewise divested of their original aura and primal meaning, symbolic weight and raison d’être. The catalog does not give in to the perceived weakness of including contextual information on the works in question, although it does allude to many contemporary authors that deal with problems relating to culture in our time, including Derrida: “Derrida remarque en passant que l’histoire du sujet décentré et la ‘destruction’ de la métaphysique européenne coïncide avec l’apparition de la problématique de la différence culturelle dans l’ethnologie. Il reconnaît la nature politique de ce moment, mais nous laisse le soin de le cerner dans le texte post colonial: “Wiped out”, they say. Turn left or right, There’s millions like you up here, Picking their way through refuse, Looking for words they lost. You’re your country’s lost property With no office to claim you back. You’re polluting our sounds. You’re so rude. “Get back to your language”, they say. On discerne là une politique culturelle de la diaspora et la paranoïa, de l’émigration et la discrimination, de l’angoisse et l’appropriation, qui ne peut être appréhendée indépendamment de ces fais métonymiques ou subalternes qui structurent le sujet écrivant et signifiant. Sans le dédoublement que reflète le jeu sur le “a” et le 3T, il serait difficile de comprendre l’angoisse suscitée par l’hybridation de la langue, et associée aux frontières vacillantes (psychiques, culturelles, territoriales) dont nous parle le poème. Où passe la ligne de partage entre les langues? Entre les cultures? Entre les disciplines? Entre les peuples?” With Derrida—a later Derrida—we pose questions: “(…) don’t we want any more today, neither eurocentrism nor antieurocentrism? Other than these all-too-well known programs, what ‘cultural identity’ must we answer to? To answer to whom? To what memory? What promise? And is ‘cultural identity’ a good name for ‘today’?”

Community.' This course was designed to better understand the problems caused by systemic racism in educational institutions, particularly disparities in higher education and how, as a teacher, to be more aware of these inequalities when teaching and provide possible ways to mitigate harm in the classroom. Bettina Love's work was introduced to me through this class. Her book We Want to Do More Than Survive is grounded in abolitionist teaching and discusses how abolitionist work requires an individual to also be a co-conspirator. During a live interview in 2019 discussing the themes in her book, Love was asked to explain what it means to move from allyship to being a coconspirator. She stated, "Allies know all the language-but to be a co-conspirator is to put something on the line for someone…to take a risk for someone…use your privilege, not just you white folks, but also you cis folks." (Love, Co-Conspirators 2019) These words stuck with me. Belinda Love's presence and sense of unwavering commitment to advocating for more than just words of allyship forced me to reflect upon my own failings at times. I began to question, what I was putting on the line and for whom? These inquiries compelled me to reconsider how I approach the practice of percussion, my role as an educator, and how I use pedagogy to empower others. Unthinking Mastery: Dehumanism and Decolonial Entanglements, by Julietta Singh, is a work that interrogates the urge towards mastery over oneself and others through intellectual and linguistic mastery, demonstrating how the concept of mastery is rooted in histories of violence and power. Singh states, "to unthink mastery requires either a radically different understanding