Performing manaaki and New Zealand refugee theatre

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn September 2015, and in response to the Syrian refugee crisis, there were widespread calls in New Zealand urging the Government to raise its annual Refugee Quota. Māori Party co-leader Marama Fox argued that New Zealand could afford to take on more refugees as part of its global citizenship and suggested that New Zealand’s policy might be shaped by manaaki. The Māori concept of manaaki is most often translated as hospitality, care-giving, and compassion. This article draws on recent Māori scholarship that also situates manaaki as a social justice concept through its focus on enhancing the dignity and rights of others. This article explores the potential implications of manaaki and the reciprocal understandings underscoring this term through a brief and preliminary analysis of New Zealand refugee theatre. The article provides a context to this analysis by providing a brief survey of refugee theatre productions staged in New Zealand in recent years. To what extent has manaaki shaped the theatre staged in Aotearoa/New Zealand engaging with asylum seekers and refugees? In what ways might manaaki provide for a different ‘envisioning of asylum’?