New Zealand Day 5

Hi again,

This was the last day of the conference at the Dowse Museum. And again it is hard to talk about all that I saw and heard. But I have been reflecting about how many stories were told and how much poetry was in the stories. I am beginning to see jewelry more and more in relationship to its story. Not just the meaning of it but the stories surrounding it or even that might be overheard by the piece of jewelry in its lifetime as if it were a silent witness to our lives.

Otto Kunzli was the keynote speaker today with an hour and 45-minute talk. His career is so long that he can easily talk about his work for that long. I was particularly taken with the many Japanese stories he told. He seems to really love all the Japanese traditions. He also created this power symbol for American corruption.

Here are a few of the people I have visited with while I have been here. Areta Wilkinson- we visited her 2 days ago.

And Alan Preston and Roseanne Bartley

and Kevin Murray

Kevin spoke on the first day of the conference if you remember and so did Rosanne. And Areta spoke today. Her talk was called -hold fast to your precious things, keep them in the memory. She is Māori and as I understand it they have a great respect for ancestors and do many things to keep their spirits present. She described an action she and a group of her south island tribe did in a museum which they occupied for 2 months last summer. 

There was another speaker- Rosanne Raymond today who is also among the native people of NZ who was part of the Pacific Sisters show I referred to yesterday. She gave an extremely lively talk about interventions she did in the Met in NYC and at a London museum where she was able to touch the Māori statues or cloth them to put some life back into them. They have been living naked and untouched for a long time. Rosanne has been part of the Pacific Sisters group for 30 years and is very much a poet and activist. She named the time and space continuum VA or ta-va and many words like acti-VA-te or conver-VA-tion were used with the overlay of a different culture’s look at how to treat an object in a museum.

And in a little shout out to Ralph… a food item. We have been served lunch both days like this..

But I noticed that the cafe had a Nicoise salad so I decided to have that instead.

The conference was over at 3 and so Damian and Kevin Murray and I set off to see some shows in Wellington downtown. There was one small space with a show called Meditations on a woman’s lot...

 and then we visited Avid Gallery where I saw this Kobi Bosshard necklace- remember we visited him the first day at his wonderful house with the stone walls.

And that was about it. But I must say that NZ is an example of how a native culture can be truly integrated into the settler culture (even referring to themselves as a settler culture is a step in a process of understanding that most countries would never allow). It is amazing when the settler culture begins to allow the natives to run things their way and respect it. So the conference for example began and ended with ritual songs and even the pākehā (the white settlers) knew all the words and greetings. It wasn’t only respect it was relinquishing control to do things a different way. The Māori have made their presence felt within the country in not only political but also in cultural ways. There are still many struggles but What a model! I can’t even imagine America even getting close to doing anything like that.

I had room service for dinner and a quiet night.

Hugs to all,

Susan