The Death of Koro Paka: “Traditional” Maori Patriarchy

Abstract

This article is underpinned by the simple question of what knowledge is produced about Mäori men and why. In particular, it deconstructs the invention, authentication, and re-authentication of “traditional” Mäori patriarchy. It begins by examining how Mäori patriarchy was invented and authenticated through the hybridization of Mäori and British masculine cultures, especially through the early colonial education of a select few Mäori boys, who were subjects of a British public schooling technique. The article draws from this historical analysis to demonstrate how Mäori patriarchy continues to be authenticated in today’s popular culture. Here, the contemporary re-authentication of Mäori patriarchy is drawn attention to through a deconstruction of the film Whale Rider. This film analysis argues that Whale Rider deploys a dangerous confl ation of representation and reality, which ultimately re-authenticates the invented tradition of Mäori patriarchy. The article is less concerned with denouncing particular tropes of Mäori men as “false” and more with how such “truths” have come to be privileged; it also seeks to uncloak the processes that produce Mäori masculine subjectivities.