Pacific Sisters: Fashion Activists In The Diaspora
By Kate Harris. Art History 233: The Art of Gender Politics. Semester Two, 2018. Grade: A+ 92/100
In what ways does the Pacific Sisters’ ‘fashion activism’ challenge pre-existing ideas of identity and gender?
Within Māori and Pacific dress cultures, clothes have pivotal political and social roles, and continually evolve within new contexts.[1] The Pacific Sisters are a collective of New Zealand Pacific and Māori artists whose creative practice is both unabashedly traditional and boldly modern. By prioritising self-determination of identity, the Sisters challenge the exclusion of Māori and Pacific New Zealanders from mainstream society, as well as pervasive stereotypical representations (especially of women), by reasserting power and agency through the mana of their costumes and performances. They “indigenise” the medium of fashion, through combining traditional techniques and methods of garment-making with contemporary and unconventional materials.[2] In their work, the Sisters express both cultural continuity and innovation by reflecting how in Māori and Pacific cultures, the past and present exist together; diaspora identity is constituted and legitimised by both tradition and modernity. Their 2018 exhibition at Te Papa Tongarewa reinforces the ways in which Pacific Sisters’ ‘fashion activism’ has, for over 20 years, broken boundaries and created cultural space in which Pacific and Māori people can express self-identity.
Formed in 1992, the Pacific Sisters are a core group of women including Selina Forsyth, Lisa Reihana, Ani O’Neill, Suzanne Tamaki, Rosanna Raymond, Feeonaa Wall, Jaunnie Ilolahia, and Niwhai Tupaea. These women recognised the strength in their diversity (both in their cultural backgrounds and their creative practices), and in the collective art-making practices vital in Māori and Pacific cultures.[3] There is also a connection forged from being marginalised in New Zealand, subjected to stereotypes and mis-representation in Pākehā-centric society.[4] The Sisters formed in the metropolitan context of Auckland, where communities of urban and immigrated Māori and Pacific people create “the largest Polynesian city in the world”.[5] This label, however, is crafted by the dominant ethnic portion (Pākehā) and belies the ways in which segregation occurs in Auckland’s “mosaic” of “ethnoburbs”.[6] As Raymond noted in 1992, “besides newspaper headlines on crime and unemployment, it’s a section of the community that is almost invisible” to the mainstream.[7] Thus, the lived experiences of Pacific and Māori people were not visible in contemporary society.
For those in these communities who were second- or third- generation New Zealanders, or had mixed heritage, both cultural traditions and the urban environment were held in their mindsets. There was a need for representations that connected people to their cultures in a positive and autonomous way, but also reflected the new realities outside of cultural homelands.The 1990s was a time in which this young, urban generation began to use expressive forms of culture across music, art, and fashion, in order to re-write how their identities had been presented, and assert their presence in the urban environment. The Pacific Sisters were central to this scene, describing themselves as an “urban tribe”.[8] The collective strength of this ‘sisterhood’, wāhine employing communal methods of art-making, exerts tino rangatiratanga over representations of emerging identities.[9] The Sisters connect to tradition, and articulate contemporary identity within their diasporic context.
Using modern materials is central to the Sisters’ practice, and represents the diverse range of cultural messages they receive. For example, RePATCHtriation (1999-2013) features trousers made from found tapa segments, a denim jacket, and a Tahitian tiputa of cotton and tapa (fig. 1).[10] Recycling and reinventing modern materials like denim by combining them with traditional materials like tapa cloth and harakeke, and employing traditional methods of weaving, reflects an important dialogue between older traditions and the Sisters’ present lives. As Raymond notes: “We follow the ancient way of working from the environment…We don’t stare at coconut trees – we stare at motorways”.[11] Kaitiaki With a K; Tāuleolevai: Keeper of the Water (Tuna) (2018) (fig. 2) also mixes tradition and contemporaneity. It is largely made from videotape, plaited in the manner of kikau brooms as Ani O’Neill notes, and features traditional chiefly headwear.[12] Such materials are “not dead just because [they’re] modern” – modern materials bring their own ‘whakapapa’, and can be literally woven into new traditions.[13] A key precedent in Māori and Pacific cultures is that the past is likewise not ‘dead’, but is living in the present. As culture and tradition are dynamic, rather than static, cultural change and adaptation show “continuity” rather than “rupture”.[14]
Figure 2. Pacific Sisters, Kaitiaki with a K; Tāulaolevai Keeper of the water (Tuna) (video tape, shell, miscellaneous) 2018, photograph by Kate Whitley, Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington. http://www.thecoconet.tv/coco-talanoa/blog/pacific-sisters/.
The outcome of combining urban streetwear with older traditions creates something new, something ‘hybrid’; it asserts ownership over traditional methods, while symbolising a new experience of identity.[15] Relating to diaspora identity particularly, RePATCHtriation and Tāuleolevai demonstrate a crucial Pacific Sister technique of ‘accessification’. This concept involves layering many elements in a full outfit, so most Pacific Sister costumes have upwards of ten individual pieces. This term embodies excess: parody, playfulness, punk. Layering textures over each other projects pride, rebellious attitude, and agency. What ‘accessification’ further represents is that in the reality of an urban diaspora, identity is “doubled, rather than halved”.[16] This means there is room for both older traditions and new, in diaspora identity.
Figure 3. Pacific Sisters, Bonnie Proctor, Point Chevalier Beach, Auckland, 1994, photograph by Vivienne Haldane. http://www.thecoconet.tv/coco-talaona/blog/pacific-sisters/
This is encapsulated in the Sisters’ concept of “kaupapa-driven frocks”. This idea details that the mana that clothing possesses – emanating from your origins, as well your beliefs and values – is foundational to Māori and Pacific dress practices.[17] During colonisation, women’s involvement in the political and social hierarchies in which clothing played a pivotal role was disrupted, when missionaries insisted that dress was connected to western ideals of feminine modesty, morality, and subordination.[18] The mana of the Pacific Sisters’ costumes is profound, because they reclaim ritualised clothing activity as an “essential part of [their] creative process as women”.[19] They openly rebel against the conservatism of European fashion, as well as missionary-influenced forms of Pacific dress such as the mu’umu’u that exemplify western ideals of modesty. While diaphanous fabrics and bare skin were controversial to their parents’ and grandparents’ generation (figs. 3-4),[20] the Sisters saw that to regain agency and deconstruct pre-conceived gender ideals, this meant using ‘frocks’ to oppose ideas of modesty within the cultures in which they grew up.
Figure 4. Pacific Sisters, an outfit from Motu Tangata (tapa cloth), 1996, photograph from the collection of Rosanna Raymond. http://www.thecoconet.tv/coco-talaona/blog/pacific-sisters/
Using terminology introduced by Audre Lorde, fashion can be considered “one of the masters tools”; the fashion industry, while integral to contemporary life, excluded Pacific and Māori.[21] However, contrary to Lorde’s statement that the “master’s tools” are unsuitable to deconstruct hegemonic power relations, the Pacific Sisters successfully “indigenise” western art forms.[22] This can be seen in their fashion shows especially, first performed in the early 1990s, in warehouses, with hip-hop and reggae soundtracks that firmly placed the shows within a New Zealand urban context. Within this format, the European catwalk style is ‘indigenised’ to appropriately present the mana of the Sisters’ outfits.[23] In a Pacific context, how garments are worn is as important as the clothes themselves, and so performance is a crucial part of the Sisters’ practice of ‘kaupapa-driven frock’.[24]
Figure 5. Pacific Sisters, Ina and Tuna, 1996, photograph by Sarah Hunter. From Raymond, Rosanna, “Getting Specific: Fashion Activism in Auckland during the 1990s: A Visual Essay.” In Clothing the Pacific, edited by Chloë Colchester, 193-208, Oxford.
One of the Sisters’ most important performance works is Ina and Tuna (1994-6). In its several iterations, the show depicted important elements of story-telling and oral history of Pacific performance genres. The legend the Sisters tell is the Mangaian Island version of the story of the origins of the coconut palm, in which Ina turns the ‘over-amorous’ Tuna into a coconut tree.[25] This version of Ina and Tuna acknowledged sexuality in a way that refuted the culture of modesty the missionaries instilled in the Pacific (fig 5).[26] With coconut-shell nipple protectors, a shell harness, and large amounts of skin, Ina is an emblem of the empowered and agentive heroine that disrupts the idea of passive sexuality of the ‘dusky maiden’ trope. This colonial construct in western art imagines Pacific women as exotic, bare-breasted, and sexually available to the western viewer. Lisa Taouma labels this as “artificially constructed mythology”[27] that shrouded the mana wāhine of Polynesian mythology who were strong and life-giving, with power over forces of nature and men.[28] Throughout their art-making, the Pacific Sisters reinforce that women like Ina are genealogically linked to women today; they did not die out because of colonisation, but are present today as much as in the past.[29] Through embodying such legends and characters in their performances, the Pacific Sisters disrupted, critiqued, and reclaimed colonial-inspired representations by re-contextualising the mana their costumes evoked within contemporary rituals where women have agency.
Figure 6. Pacific Sisters, 21st Sentry Cyber Sister (tapa, feathers, bone, harakeke, nylon, shells, seeds, coconut shell, videotape, plastic) 1997, Te Papa Tongarewa, http://pantograph-punch.com/post/pacific-sisters.
It is precisely the idea of ancestors still being present that is crucial to the 2018 ActiVAtion at the opening of Toi Art gallery at Te Papa Tongarewa, and the retrospective exhibition “Pacific Sisters: Fashion Activists” it preceded. The Sisters’ relationship with the museum is long – they were present at its opening in 1997, unveiling and presenting their work 21st Sentry Cyber Sister (1997) to the museum (fig. 6).[30] The 27 pieces that Cyber Sister wears form a futuristic armour incorporating many materials, both traditional such as tapa, harakeke, feather, bone, and contemporary such as video-tape, plastic, and nylon, as well as traditional maro and hula skirt with items like a backpack. She is a futuristic goddess warrior created by the Sisters, who “protects the collections” housed in the museum, fends off racism, and signals the presence of Māori and Pacific cultures in the twenty-first century.[31] There is significance in the exhibition’s location in this museum, where many taonga live; this is made clear when considering the ActiVAtion (fig. 7) as a ritual of “cultural health and safety”, ‘activating’ connections of past to present identities, and validating both.[32] Again, change is not rupture, but instead challenges the idea that identity and culture are static. The exhibition itself, featuring costumes, photography, and video of past performances, affirms how the Sisters have created the expressive space in which Pacific and Māori contemporary identity is agentive, and present in mainstream New Zealand.
Figure 7. Pacific Sisters, ActiVAtion of Toi Art at Te Papa Tongarewa, 2018, photograph by Kate Whitley, Te Papa Tongarewa. https://www.tepapa.govt.nz/about/news/2018-news/dramatic-performance-prime-minister-opens-toi-art.
The Pacific Sisters’ recognition by a major public institution is indicative of the cultural space they have created in which Māori and Pacific artists and people can express their own identity. The political valence to their practice, asserting tino rangatiratanga over their representation and identity, reinforces tradition and asserts their presence in contemporary society.[33] The Pacific Sisters prove that culture and identity constantly evolve, through how they innovate upon tradition to reflect new urban realities with new materials and types of garments, and attitudes that go against missionary-influenced ideals of modesty. Furthermore, in both the goddesses they depict from history, and those they imagine, the Sisters confront pervasive colonial representations which perpetuated false mythologies of passivity. The Pacific Sisters’ “fashion activism” embraces hybridity to challenge the ways in which pākehā hegemony has determined their identity, by creating new dress forms and rituals that reflect urban diasporic reality, and reinforcing agency over their own gender representation.
[1] Chloë Colchester, introduction to Clothing the Pacific (Oxford: Berg, 2003), 9.
[2] Karen Stevenson, The Frangipani is Dead: Contemporary Pacific Art in New Zealand, 1985-2000 (Wellington: Huia Publishers, 2008), 182.
[3] Nina Tonga, “Pacific Sisters: Fashion Activists,” interview by Kim Hill, Saturday Morning, RNZ, March 3, 2018, audio, 10.17, https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018634519/nina-tonga-pacific-sisters-fashion-activists. The group has evolved through time, with over 300 collaborators now, including men – notably musician Henry Ah-Foo Taripo.
[4] Karen Stevenson, The Frangipani is Dead: Contemporary Pacific Art in New Zealand, 1985-2000 (Wellington: Huia Publishers, 2008), 28.
[5] Jacqueline Charles Rault, “More than Simply Traditional – The Pacific Sisters,” Pacific Arts 10, no.2 (2010): 5, https://www.jstor.org/stable/23412153.
[6] Damon Salesa, Island Time: New Zealand’s Pacific Futures (Wellington: Bridget Williams Books, 2017), 53.
[7] Raymond, quoted in Rault, “More than,” 6.
[8] “21st Sentry Cyber Sister,” Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, accessed September 10, 2018, https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/301427.
[9] Ane Tonga, “Sissy That Walk: A Short Herstory of the Pacific Sisters,” Art New Zealand, no. 165 (Autumn 2018): 48.
[10] Ioana Gordon-Smith, “From the Margins to the Mainstream: Pacific Sisters at Te Papa,” Pantograph Punch, April 18, 2018, http://pantograph-punch.com/post/pacific-sisters.
[11] Raymond, quoted in Caroline Vercoe and Robert Leonard. “Pacific Sisters: Doing It For Themselves,” Art Asia Pacific, no. 14 (1997): para.10, http://robertleonard.org/pacific-sisters-doing-it-for-themselves/.
[12] “Pacific Sisters create ‘Tāulaolevai: Keeper of the Water (Tuna)’,” YouTube video, 3.04, posted by Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, May 10, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09ips64rhK8.
[13] Ibid.
[14] Tonga, “Sissy,” 49.
[15] Stevenson, “Frangipani,” 182.
[16] Gordon-Smith, “From the Margins.”
[17] Tonga, interview.
[18] Colchester, “Introduction,” 8; Annie Mikaere, “Māori Women: Caught in the Contradictions of a Colonised Reality.” Waikato Law Review 2 (1994): 131. https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/waik2&i=129.
[19] Rault, “More than,” 7.
[20] Rosanna Raymond, “Getting Specific: Fashion Activism in Auckland during the 1990s: A Visual Essay,” in Clothing the Pacific, ed. Chloë Colchester, (Oxford: Berg, 2003), 199. Raymond notes how the Sisters efforts to revive traditional skills and oral traditions lead to wider acceptance from older generations.
[21] Audre Lorde, “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House,” in Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (New York: Crossing Press, 1984), 112.
[22] Stevenson, “Frangipani,” 182.
[23] Tonga, “Sissy,” 49.
[24] Raymond, “Getting Specific,” 201.
[25] Tonga, “Sissy,” 51.
[26] Rault, “More than,” 11.
[27] Lisa Taouma, “‘Gauguin is Dead…There is no Paradise’,” Journal of Intercultural Studies 25, no. 1 (April 2004): 39, https://doi.org/10.1080/07256860410001687009.
[28] A. Marata Tamaira, “From Full Dusk to Full Tusk: Reimagining the “Dusky Maiden” through the Visual Arts,” The Contemporary Pacific 22, no.1 (Spring 2010): 3, https://muse-jhu-edu.ezproxy.auckland.ac.nz/article/372552#back.
[29] Ibid., 6.
[30] Tonga, “Sissy,” 51.
[31] Tonga, interview.
[32] “Pacific Sisters Toi Art Gallery Opening – ActiVAtion Te Papa Museum 2018,” YouTube video, 7.32, posted by Pākē Salmon, May 10, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0VQcxxneD4.
[33] Gordon-Smith, “From the Margins.”
Bibliography:
Colchester, Chloë. Introduction to Clothing the Pacific, 1-22. Edited by Chloë Colchester. Oxford: Berg, 2003.
Gordon-Smith, Ioana. “From the Margins to the Mainstream: Pacific Sisters at Te Papa.” Pantograph Punch, April 18, 2018. http://pantograph-punch.com/post/pacific-sisters.
Lorde, Audre. “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House.” In Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches, 110-113. New York: Crossing Press, 1984.
Mikaere, Annie. “Māori Women: Caught in the Contradictions of a Colonised Reality.” Waikato Law Review 2 (1994): 125-149. https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/waik2&i=129.
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. “21st Sentry Cyber Sister.” Accessed September 10, 2018. https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/301427.
“Pacific Sisters create ‘Tāulaolevai: Keeper of the Water (Tuna)’.” YouTube video, 3.04. Posted by Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, May 10, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09ips64rhK8.
“Pacific Sisters Toi Art Gallery Opening – ActiVAtion Te Papa Museum 2018.” YouTube video, 7.32. Posted by Pākē Salmon, May 10, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0VQcxxneD4.
Rault, Jacqueline Charles. “More than Simply Traditional – The Pacific Sisters.” Pacific Arts 10, no.2 (2010): 5-15. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23412153.
Raymond, Rosanna. “Getting Specific: Fashion Activism in Auckland during the 1990s: A Visual Essay.” In Clothing the Pacific, edited by Chloë Colchester, 193-208. Oxford: Berg, 2003.
Salesa, Damon. Island Time: New Zealand’s Pacific Futures. Wellington: Bridget Williams Books, 2017.
Stevenson, Karen. The Frangipani is Dead: Contemporary Pacific Art in New Zealand, 1985-2000. Wellington: Huia Publishers, 2008.
Tamaira, A. Marata. “From Full Dusk to Full Tusk: Reimagining the “Dusky Maiden” through the Visual Arts.” The Contemporary Pacific 22, no.1 (Spring 2010): 1-35. https://muse-jhu-edu.ezproxy.auckland.ac.nz/article/372552#back.
Taouma, Lisa. “‘Gauguin is Dead…There is no Paradise’.” Journal of Intercultural Studies 25, no. 1 (April 2004): 35-46. https://doi.org/10.1080/07256860410001687009.
Tonga, Ane. “Sissy That Walk: A Short Herstory of the Pacific Sisters.” Art New Zealand, no. 165 (Autumn 2018): 48-52.
Tonga, Nina. “Pacific Sisters: Fashion Activists”. Interview by Kim Hill. Saturday Morning, RNZ, March 3, 2018. Audio, 10.17. https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018634519/nina-tonga-pacific-sisters-fashion-activists.
Vercoe, Caroline, and Robert Leonard. “Pacific Sisters: Doing It For Themselves.” Art Asia Pacific, no. 14 (1997). 43-45. http://robertleonard.org/pacific-sisters-doing-it-for-themselves/.
About the Author:
Kate Harris is a postgraduate student in 2020, studying for her honours in ethnomusicology. She is passionate about clothing and textile history, and is the Editor of Perspective Journal.
