The ASB Polyfest: Constructing Transnational Pacific Communities of Practice in Auckland, New Zealand
Year: 2018
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The ASB Polyfest is a competition for secondary school students in Auckland, New Zealand, which features music and dance performance forms of indigenous Māori and New Zealand's four most populous Pacific cultures: The Cook Islands, Niue, Samoa and Tonga. The festival originated from population shifts in Auckland in the late 1960s, due to Pacific immigration and urban relocation of Māori as migrant labour for New Zealand's rapid industrial growth. The formation of school 'Polynesian Clubs' created social spaces for Māori and Pacific students and communities, with an emphasis on performance. Progressive educational leadership at Hillary College in the south Auckland suburb of Otara encouraged the development of the first festival, involving Polynesian Clubs from four schools in 1976. Following the festival's inception, the interest from Auckland schools steadily increased. Presently, approximately 10,000 students perform, and an equal number of audience members attend the festival over four days. This research is focused on the Pacific categories, or 'stages,' within the festival. I argue that the individual competing ensembles at the ASB Polyfest, called cultural groups, are transnational Pacific communities of practice (Wenger, 1998) co-constructed by students, their instructors, schoolteachers, judges and festival organisers. Cultural group tutors skilfully engage students and create opportunities for belonging through incorporating markers of school identity, popular culture, and accessibility for students without previous culturally-specific knowledge, as well as constructing performances within the festival's parameters. While participating in cultural groups, students construct individual meanings of cultural identity, affiliated with ethnic heritage, friendships, and experiences of leadership. I conclude that, as communities of practice, ASB Polyfest school cultural groups are uniquely constructed Pacific spaces that serve as transnational 'villages' from which performances distinctive to the festival emerge. Cultural groups and committees of festival organisers are also sites of contestation, where ideals of tradition, religion, ethnicity, and gender are negotiated in participation, and in the evaluation of performances. Participants employ 'polycultural capital' (Mila-Schaaf, 2010) to navigate the construction of transnational Pacific cultures in a multicultural urban environment. These negotiations reflect the dynamic nature of Auckland's transnational Pacific communities, and of the ASB Polyfest itself.
Author: Michelle Williams
Language: English
Topic: Arts and Performance Studies
Subfield: Visual Arts and Performing Arts
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2952479265