Time and again, we create in a way that we believe or hope to seem neutral, impartial, or unbiased. That may very well be our hope or our aim, but I argue that western dominance and hierarchies are so ingrained in us, and by extension our practice, that we inadvertently re-assert, re-affirm, re-cement methods, rhythms, styles, narratives, palates that are in fact borne from western paradigms, pedagogies, physiques and institutions. 

 

If we want to receive funding, we propose a project that aligns with a framework that may not align with our own cultural thinking or embodiment.
If we want to be programmed, we may dilute any ‘foreign-ness’ in order to seem accessible and palatable. The list of conscious reasons are long. The unconscious ones are often harder to locate, or even concede. Are we creating in a way that reflects our intentions, identity, tastes, desires when in fact those may have been so diluted and nullified as to be almost invisible, even to us. 

 

The Polish-New Zealand musician Łukasz Buda stated that ‘anything a bit vibrant, or fruity is flattened out, dulled down in New Zealand.’ For many
New Zealanders from non-Anglo backgrounds, the attempt to be seen as non-foreign, non- ‘other’ is a life-long (ad)venture. 

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There have been many times in my experience that I have seen artists remove, ignore, or minimise the very part of their artistry that makes them extra-ordinary, vibrant, dynamic. And in doing so, have become blander, more digestable/absorbable versions of themselves. 

 

My aim in this research is not to ignore one identity in favour of another.
We are made up of a multitude of selves, I for example am raised in Aotearoa/New Zealand, from a Greek mother and an (unknown) Scottish New Zealand father. My husband is Maori/Irish. Our son is all these things. How can we choose to be one thing, when we are made up of so many? Why decide on one approach, when a multiple of ways is replete with potentialities, possibilities, and solutions not yet considered.