Cultures and Histories of People

Interactivity With One's Culture

The concepts of literature and history as identified in the excerpt from the Potiki that is referenced in this assignment is one of continuous interaction. Moreover, they underscore the degree of continuity that these people have with their past, which is quite at variance with conventional Western perceptions of the past. These facts are demonstrated throughout the manuscript that this excerpt stems from. Still, they are indicated perhaps most poignantly in the subsequent quotation "But our main book was the wharenui which is itself a story, a history, a gallery, a study, a design structure and a taonga. And we were part of that book along with family past and family yet to come."

What this particular section means is that the indigenous people have a deep rooted connection to the wharenui and to their background that transcends mere heirlooms and symbols (which is typically how history is represented throughout western societies). There is a practicality involved in such cultural representations which explains why the daughter kills butterflies in Grace's tale, and which is why her (Westernized) teacher cannot relate to doing so (Stanford, 1996, p. 13). It is pivotal to realize that the author of the wharenui passage denotes a number of different functions of the wharenui, which serves as a chronicle of this people's past, present, and future in a means that is part history, part manuscript, part visual, and part academic as well. Typically, Western society separates these different facets of the humanities. However, this passage indicates that the culture identified in this quotation swirls all of those elements together in a way that they live, together, "in a variety of backgrounds" (Grace, 2000, p.111) in confluence with the people themselves. Thus, there is a means of continuity and vitality associated with the very culture of this people that is propagated by them and by the different areas of the humanities, which are not so different for these indigenous peoples.

This idea of propagation and continual interaction with one's culture, heritage, past, future, etc., definitely challenges the conventional notions of indigenous native identities are intrinsically 'set' in the past. In fact, the preceding analysis of the excerpt indicates that the very notion of the past as conceived of by this particular group of indigenous peoples is incongruent with the idea of the past as identified by most westerners. The reality of the situation is that most Westerners lives are intrinsically linked to technology and science. Technology and science are actually external manifestations -- they are objective things that can exert a great amount of sway over one's life so that one is constantly thinking of external things. Viewed from this perspective, there is a definite distinction between the past and the present, partially because there is always a steady influx of technology and science -- and their applications, most importantly -- that maintains that distinction.