Enjoy
Blog

Hiraeth Reading List

March 28 2024, by Brooke Pou

Hiraeth is a Welsh word describing a spiritual longing for a place that we have never been. It is the lost ancient places we imagine our ancestors would stomp their feet into their lands and the grief we struggle to locate in our bodies—a dislocated homesickness for a motherland we have never belonged to. Sylvan Spring and Holly Walker have researched and worked collaboratively to illustrate the intimate and at times awkward rituals they engage with, in a concerted effort to become truly Tangata Tiriti.

Sylvan Spring and Holly Walker, Cèilidh, 2024, filmed by Fraser Walker. Film still courtesy of the artists.

Catherine Delahunty, “Becoming Tangata Tiriti,” e-Tangata, 26 September, 2021.
https://e-tangata.co.nz/reflections/becoming-tangata-tiriti/
Catherine Delahunty grapples with the complexities of Pākehā identity in Aotearoa and what it means to move towards becoming Tangata Tiriti.

Claire Gray, Nabila Jaber and Jim Anglem, “Pakeha Identity and Whiteness: What does it mean to be White?” Sites: A Journal of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies, vol. 10, no. 2, 2013, 82–106.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.11157/sites-vol10iss2id223
This paper is concerned with a critical examination of whiteness among those who self identify as Pakeha within a New Zealand context. Through in-depth interviews with 15 men and women we explored the proposition that the adoption of a Pakeha identity may preclude an understanding of the ways that whiteness and privilege operate.

Diana Amundsen, “Decolonisation through Reconciliation”, MAI Journal, vol 7, no. 2, 2018.
DOI: 10.20507/MAIJournal.2018.7.2.3

Jen Margaret, The State of the Pākehā Nation, 2018.
https://groundwork.org.nz/resources/state-of-the-nation/
Jen Margaret’s speech explores the necessity to unravel privilege, racism and colonisation, and suggests ways in which Pākehā might work to do so.

“Land of the Long White Cloud: Episode 6: Connecting to Aotearoa” RNZ, Produced by Mint Suite, 26 November 2019.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/land-of-the-long-white-cloud/story/2018721664/land-of-the-long-white-cloud-episode-6-connecting-to-aotearoa

M. Heather Carver, “Staging the self: Feminist performance art and autobiographical performance”, Text and Performance Quarterly, 18:4, 1998, 394-400.
DOI: 10.1080/10462939809366240

Rebecca Kiddle and Ocean Mercier, Imagining Decolonisation, Wellington: Bridget Williams Books, 2020.
Contributions from Bianca Elkington, Moana Jackson, Rebecca Kiddle, Ocean Ripeka Mercier, Mike Ross, Jennie Smeaton, and Amanda Thomas aid in the exploration of the impacts of colonisation on Māori and non-Māori alike.

Rebecca Sinclair, “Restorative decolonising: projection, reflection, and imagining expanded relational worlds”, Medium, 3 July, 2023.