Promotional Culture and Indigenous Identity

Abstract

This chapter examines the discursive codes of production, the dominant cultural assumptions, and the claims of authenticity that are routinely summoned by cultural intermediaries who produce commercial images of “Ka Mate” and other Māori intellectual properties. It highlights the ongoing erosion of the territorial frontiers and cultural boundaries of the global advertising industry in relation to Indigenous intellectual and cultural property, with particular emphasis on the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) and its corporate sponsorship. It also considers “the value of Māori culture to the broader All Blacks brand: a brand that has become so popular it now exists as a vehicle for the promotion of numerous corporations.” Finally, it considers the disjunctures between Western values of exchange, private property, and intellectual property rights, and Māori understandings of history, ownership, and community in relation to debates over who “owns” “Ka Mate,” and, in turn, who can profit from Māori culture.