Pasifika representation must be more than visibility
In this week’s Off Script column, actor, stand-up comedian and writer Bailey Poching argues that true Pasifika representation in the arts must be about more than mere visibility.
Growing up as a Pasifika person in the 2000s UK, popular films and television didn’t exactly offer up an abundance of role models I could relate to. Especially as a boy who wasn’t an aspiring athlete or Scorpion King.
Today, things are very different, and you can’t throw a rock without hitting a Pasifika story. Granted, that rock will likely bounce off the baby-oiled pec of The Rock, or the chest of glistening Hawaiian Polynesian hunk Jason Momoa. But one can’t ignore the myriad stories featuring brown faces on some of the biggest platforms in the world.
Recent Toronto International Film Festival breakout film-maker Alex Liu invoked the phrase “Pacific New Wave” to describe the most recent crop of Pasifika storytellers. And I couldn’t agree more. But in the groundswell of new brown stories, I hope to see more than just “brown faces” on our screens and stages.
So often, “visibility” can become conflated with “meaningful representation”, and in our blissful welcoming of any and all stories, we can often over-accept stories just because they have brown faces in them. A taonga puoro here, an “uso” there, and suddenly we’re welcoming in any Tama, TK and Henare we see on screen.
But every day in community spaces, in our music, screen work and theatre, there are brown creatives challenging form and rewriting narratives about how our stories need to be told. True story sovereignty happens when an artist is given unrestricted freedom to tell the story they want in the way they want, rather than just playing to familiar stereotypes.
When considering the versions of identity we see on stage or screen, I can’t help but reflect on my own place within the oeuvre of Pasifika and Māori storytelling. It’s easy to stand in the bleachers and call for a new kind of story, but are you willing to write it? That was the challenge I set when writing my latest solo show, Doing Great. If I was sitting in the audience, what story would I want to see?
Naturally, I thought back to my brown idols growing up. What did they do? What resonated in their work for me?
Watching Taika Waititi’s Boy, I connected with the way he used avoidant humour to handle historical trauma that felt too heavy for sincerity. Meanwhile, Oscar Kightley’s bro shows portrayed a simplistic style of comedy, but offered covert commentary on life as a Pacific Islander in 2000s Aotearoa.
These artists have meaningfully contributed to the cinematic canon, and we should be proud of their depth and thoughtfulness, while also pressing forward into the untapped potential yet to explore.
Am I on the waka? I don’t know, but I’ll be swimming as hard as I can to jump on it.
- Bailey Pooching will perform his award-winning solo show, Doing Great, at Nelson Arts Festival from October 22 to November 1. nelsonartsfestival.nz