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Pacific women: challenging the boundaries of tradition

Stevenson, Karen M. (2011) Pacific women: challenging the boundaries of tradition. [Book Review or Scholarly Comment]

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Abstract

In the past decade much of contemporary Pacific arts is, in essence the same; but much has changed. At the turn of the millennium, contemporary Pacific arts were still embroiled in the academic debates referencing such notions as ‘identity’, ‘authenticity’, ‘tourist art’, ‘craft’ and ‘tradition’. In my article, I suggested that Pacific women were utilising their arts practice to negotiate between their contemporary lives and the traditional objects upon which their artistic practice was based. I wrote: ‘What we see in contemporary art practice is the attempt to negotiate tradition, which is at the heart and soul of Polynesian society’1. Today, tradition is, perhaps defined more as cultural values – it is more than the object that is referenced, it is the cultural knowledge and protocols that are imbued in it. As such, artists are creating their own language and placing their work in categories of their own choosing: heritage, taonga, koloa, and even, art.

Item Type: Book Review or Scholarly Comment
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman
Divisions: Faculty of Arts, Law and Education (FALE) > Oceania Centre for Arts, Culture and Pacific Studies
Depositing User: Ms Shalni Sanjana
Date Deposited: 29 Jan 2013 04:15
Last Modified: 29 Jan 2013 04:15
URI: http://repository.usp.ac.fj/id/eprint/5503
UNSPECIFIED

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