Things To Do When Not Researching

I think it's time for me to get back to the original kaupapa of blogging. In other words I’m going to say something about what I’ve been up to for the last little while, besides the obvious, researching at the Newberry. I’m also going to quit the shameless self-promotion about voting for me at http://www.nzbookmonth.co.nz/.

So, big event last week was the Powwow Miranda and I went to on Thursday night at the American Indian Centre, North Chicago. The centre was set up in 1953 (also a big year for Maori land legislation), an initiative of Indians who were relocated at that time to parts of Chicago. The powwow was to welcome some New Zealand and American artists (including Lisa Reihana and Wayne Youle) who are involved in an art exchange and were having a hui at Ruatepupuke at the Field Museum. Arapata Hakiwai and Eru Wharehinga were with the artists’ group as well, so it was nice to see some friendly Maori and Indian faces. We also met Winnebago artist/sculptor Truman Lowe who is based at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Miranda and I will be lunching there on Wednesday, en route to Yellowstone Park. We’re going to do a Thelma and Louise road trip, but without the flying off the cliff bit at the end.

Anyway, back to the American Indian Centre. Pow. Wow. What a great night. The MC was real funny. He was with the artists group and they were late arriving. He explained that they were stuck in traffic, and said “I don’t know why they call it rush hour. No one was goin’ anywhere.” He was a hard case, entertained us while we ate, and kept it up throughout the night. He was like half DJ, half calling the housie: “Welcome – to yoour – American Indian Centre – Chicaaagooo!” He made jokes about New Zealand, and a few about Maori and our similarities with Indians, and then he made us all get up and we had to join the first dance. Some of the key dancers led us into the main part of the hall and around the drum. After the MC’s jokes I tried to play the ‘Maori card’ and said I was going to lurk at the back of the hall with my arms crossed, but those other Maories weren’t gonna let any of us get away with that.

Can’t believe I co-operated so easily. Must be because I’m way on the other side of the world and hardly anyone who knows me saw me. I tell you what, though, it’s harder than it looks. And there seemed to be quite a few different ways of stomping and stepping. I wondered if some of the differences were tribal. At first I tried to follow this old fulla’s steps, but I just couldn’t get the rhythm, but by the end of the night I had sussed out this kuia and her way of stepping. Some of the little tamariki were fantastic. They were so in to it, and I was thinking it looked like a good way to tucker the kids out. They must crash when they get home. They had some young guys on the drum too, just learning according to Truman.


The little girls in red were all rev'ed up and ready to go well before the drum was ready to sing. They just couldn't wait to start dancing - one of those wonderful infectious moments that adults get to enjoy about young children some times.

There were a couple of things I really liked about their tikanga at the centre. I liked the way they had all their tribal flags hanging from the ceiling. It looked cool, and it's laden with all that symbolism of flags and tribes and identity and self-determination.


I also really liked the fact that first order of business was kai. What a brilliant idea that is. Wish we did that. That way the fry bread is still warm when you eat. Mmm. They do some good fry bread: similar, but not quite the same as ours, and definitely not like my mummy’s paraoa parai. Hers is the best. After kai, the first song from the drum (which is in the centre of the powwow and played and sung by about eight guys) was for the ringawera and the kai. Nice. Then it was our turn with the first dance of the night, which I guess was like a welcome too. The MC was commentating the whole time.

The other tikanga I liked was how they did this young women’s birthday. She had just turned 21 and her and her whanau were there with their regalia on, including her kuia in a wheel chair who is a long-time associate of the centre. So they were called onto the floor, and everyone had to go and hariru the birthday girl and give her one dollar – “no more, no less” – and hariru her whanau as well. After the hariru you stayed standing around the drum, and when everyone’s done their hariru the whanau leads the next dance. It was cool, and short and sweet, and no long speeches involved, and the birthday girl got quite a few bucks. Now, I could do a birthday like that. And it takes the pressure off people getting all anxious about choosing a good present.


Some of the feather and bead work in the regalia was awesome, especially close up where you get to see the detail and the incredible amount of work involved.

The girl in the pink (below) is Junior Miss American Indian Chicago, 2008. You can make out the drum and singers behind her, and the MC on stage at the back.


All in all, it was a very cool night. People were really friendly. I came home with a full puku and aching legs. Then I spent Friday making my legs ache more. I went out to the University of Chicago, mainly to hear Ramon Gutierrez give a seminar on the beradaches of the American Southwest (or Mexican North, depending on your worldview). The beradaches were men who dressed as women and ‘serviced’ other men, generally warriors. They were prisoners of war, and tended to be owned (and pimped out) by chiefs. Ramon’s argument – partly, anyway – was that the lives of these indigenous transvestites have been romanticised in recent decades by scholars looking for models of gay liberation by holding up examples of societies that embraced homosexuality. And he had all this evidence of how harsh the lives of the beradaches were. It was really interesting. And I’m glad I went, not just for the seminar, but also because Ramon was the discussant on the panel I was on at the Settler Colonialism symposium and he was really, really good to me and gave me heaps of useful feedback afterwards. It’ll all be put to good use when I get on to publishing.


I had a couple of hours to kill before the seminar, so I did that by visiting about four bookshops in as many blocks on campus. They sure do good bookshops in the States. One of the bigger ones is in the Theological Seminary, which is an interesting concept: first time I've ever wondered if I should cross myself and genuflect on the way into a bookshop. That's the lobby in the pic. The doorway into the bookshop is just on the left and it takes you down into a basement area which is kind of dungeon-like but with good lighting.


The Chicago Tin Man, Michigan Ave
After Ramon’s seminar I went back to town and did yet another stroll down the Magnificent Mile, hence the continuing aching of the legs. But it was all worth it. I got to see the Chicago Tin Man, who you might be familiar with already. I think he’s been to NZ before (for a buskers’ festival, pea?) He stands perfectly still till a koha activates him. Then he does that robotic movement stuff with sound effects. He’s really good, excellent, and cheeky too, especially to people who try and take his photo or something without giving a koha. I liked that.

On Sunday I did some more roaming, this time to the National Museum of Mexican Art. I am loving that place, and will definitely visit again before I leave Chicago. It’s got plenty of crazy, crazy Catholicism to keep me amused. A lot of the art works with the mix of traditional religious beliefs and Catholicism. And I reckon it is also the most colourful and animated museum/gallery I’ve ever been to. None of that white-washed wall business for this place, no. It has pink walls and bright orange walls and avocado green walls.

See, look at the colour in this. The background colour is the colour of the walls in this particular exhibition 'Horns, Hooves, Wings, Fins and Tails: animal imagery in the permanent collection'. The earliest pieces in the museum's permanent collection date to the time of the Aztecs.

This (below) is the middle section of a modern work (2000) called Retablo by Alejandro Garcia Nelo. It's based on a typical retablo (art works that occupy the wall behind the altar) found in
Mexican churches (not to mention some of the altars they make in their homes). This Retablo has elements of Aztec religion running down the left side, and Catholicism down the right. I guess it's a comment on the blending of the colonised and coloniser's religions.

I like Mexican interpretations of things like Diablo (Hatana), and Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). This pic below is of a contemporay depiction of Diablo. I really liked it, it's out there.

Day of the Dead is a native celebration that commemorates the dead, that apparently used to occur in the ninth of the Aztec months (roughly equivalent to August, which I guess is the end of summer). It's now celebrated coincidentally with the Catholic's All Saints and All Souls Days at the beginning of November. So, either the native Mexicans shifted the celebration date to hide it from their Spanish colonisers or their Spanish colonisers imposed the Catholic celebrations to replace their pagan ones. I'll let you decide.

And then there was this: the 'Baby Jesus', wooden, from the 1700s. But don't you reckon he looks like he's about to bust a move? Too cute though.