(no subject)

[labellementeuse]

Okay, so I got to replying to comments in that post I did yesterday about the use and abuse of Maori culture in non-NZ works. I was specifically thinking of issues 16 and 17 of the Gotham Knights comic, written by Devin Grayson and set in the DCU (that's Batman & Robin, Superman, and Wonder Woman, but not Spiderman, the Hulk, or the X-Men.) I really liked GK a lot when I read it, and I like Grayson's writing a whole heap as a rule; but parts of these did kind of grate on me, so I went through and scanned a few bits to explain why.

So, Batman is angsting away in Gotham in normal Batman styles, pausing occasionally to fight a little crime, when he runs into this dude calling himself Matatoa. Matatoa claims not to be Maori but to have spent a lot of time with them, and wants to - surprise! - kill Batman and eat his soul. The Maori culture related stuff in these issues can be split into roughly three sections: the actually pretty good, the wtf, and the out of my country NOW.


So. The good is mostly some reasonably fair moko art:



This one's from the cover, and it's really not too bad. The moko on his face probably aren't really deeply accurate, but they at least look authentic; he also has a bunch of other tats, but it's not unbelievable or even unlikely that this guy would be big into body mutilation so. (joke, guys.)



Nothing wrong with that art there at all.

The wtf:



I'm willing to keep giving them the benefit of the doubt for the so very not Maori tattoos, but I'm not sure whether they were intended to look authentic or not. For what it's worth, they don't.



I, uh. Okay, so it is possible Matatoa was intended to be an Australian who popped over to Aotearoa for a bit of a learn-up and live-in. He says "mate" a lot, for one thing (although I've noticed this used as a marker for almost any non-American English-speaking country, including Canada.)

Or, on the other hand, Ms Grayson was really, really confused. Facepalm, continue.

The awful:



It is possible that a freaking blowpipe was not intended to be read as a Maori weapon. But there's only so much benefit of the doubt I can give. BLOWPIPES BLOWPIPES BLOWPIPES, OUT OUT OUT.



*crying* Okay, where do I start?
a) TOTEM POLES.
b) WAR DANCES AROUND A FIRE. WITH TOTEM POLES.
c) EVERYONE AND HIS DOG HAS A MOKO (For non-NZers: moko are signs of age and mana and prestige and they are intended to be meaningful. They're not to be used as markers of OOH LOOK A PRIMITIVE.)
d) FUR. FUR ON THEIR BACKS. All together, everyone: New Zealand has exactly how many large mammals?

NONE. We have one native mammal and it is a bat, hur hur, and there are not enough of them to make one coat out of.

[ETA: sixth_light suggests seal fur cloaks. Okay, if that looks like seal fur to you, I'm willing to let that one slide. But it doesn't. The other possibility of course is feather cloaks, which are and were incredibly valuable, so NO.]

e) TOTEM POLES.
f) It is actually not possible to "live with the Maori". Particularly not in crazy longhouse teepee things, which they never lived in, but in general, there is no "the Maori." Maori do not live on reservations, they live in cities and on farms. Maori don't dance around war fires (not that they ever, ever did), they march on Parliament and are also very influential politicians. They play rugby and make movies and work in banks and libraries and offices and shops and go to university and make money and go on the dole and do everything everyone else in this counry does. They also don't wear grass skirts, ever, except for kapa haka performances.
g) On the other hand, matatoa actually does mean fearless and the idea of the moko as a spiritual quality is almost interesting, as are some of the resonances this page stirs associated with things like ritualised cannibalism.



Shaman. Medicine man. These are american concepts. They are concepts that have no place in the South Pacific. Please, please, please think a little before you use words that you associate with indigenous cultures, and check that those words are associated with all indigenous cultures. You could have Don effing Brash read this and tell you that these were not the appropriate words to use.



So, in conclusion: the whole thing is a mishmash of imagery associated with a lot of different indigenous cultures, pretty much like someone wanted something vaguely ethnic and specifically First Peoples - hence blowpipes and totem poles. The sad thing is, some of it was absolutely right... it just didn't make up for the sheer awfulness of shaman. A little research would have fixed so much. It's also possible to fanwank this into something mostly vaguely believable, taking care of, say, the kookaburras and possibly the depiction of the Maori as a primitive culture. You have to make Matatoa an Australian whaler from the 1800s, but you can do it. But some of these sins are unforgiveable, like totem poles, and war dances, and medicine man. These are blatant borrowings from Native American culture (possibly even Native American pop culture misconceptions) and they're ridiculous and offensive and they would have been easy to avoid. Really.

AND! four pages that I really like a lot about these issues, because I really do.

Nightwing runs into Matatoa and starts to give him a beating, including some pretty good banter.

And Bruce has something he finds difficult to say. And this is almost what made me angriest: this whole kerfuffle happened for an absolute landmark moment.