The third and final session of the reading group Reading Environments |That which endures is titled, That which binds and endures.

For this session we will consider two works in Vaiei Tupuna: the painting Poedua [Poetua], daughter of Oreo, chief of Ulaietea, one of the Society Isles; and, Hina Sings… comprising work by Sue Pearson and Pauline Reynolds in the window gallery and the multimedia work Hina’s Granddaughters in the Kirk Gallery. We will read the following: “Sacred Cloth and Sacred Women: On cloths, gifts, and nudity in Tahitian first contacts: A culture of ‘wrapping-in’ (2008) by Serge Tcherkezoff in First Contacts in Polynesia: The Samoan Case (1722-1848) Western Misunderstandings about Sexuality and Divinity, Canberra: ANU Press: pp159–186; and, “Tapa Cloths and Beaters: Tradition, Innovation and the Agency of the Bounty Women in Shaping a New Culture on Pitcairn Island from 1790 to 1850” (2016) by Pauline Reynolds in Textile History 47(2): pp190–207.

“In Polynesia, the gifting of cloth was a fundamental way of establishing and strengthening social relationships — a newcomer into a family or community was wrapped in tapa, and that person, now enveloped by the essence of that family or community, was transformed in important respects and brought into the gift-giver’s world… The making and felting of cloth by the women of the Pitcairn community was symbolic of the binding and weaving of relationships, particularly amongst the women and their children.”
- Excerpt from Pauline Reynolds, “Tapa Cloths and Beaters: Tradition, Innovation and the Agency of the Bounty Women in Shaping a New Culture on Pitcairn Island from 1790 to 1850.” (pp202–203)

In this the sixth series of Reading Environments, Dr April Henderson Programme Director of Va'aomanū Pasifika—Programme in Pacific Studies and Samoan Studies at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, brings together readings in conjunction with exhibition Vaiei Tupuna, under the theme of That which endures.

Inspired by the enduring wairua of tapa’s ancestors and present-day practitioners, this series prompts conversations about people’s relationships with each other, their material and non-material worlds, and their histories and futures. Collectively, these works present a taste of Oceanic thinking of global relevance in a world shaped by persistent colonial legacies, the capitalist commodification of seemingly everything, and the existential threat of climate crisis.

Reading Environments is a reading group open to all, for reading, listening and thinking together. Hosted by Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington academics Su Ballard (Art History) Bonnie Etherington and Adam Grener (English Literatures and Creative Communication), Reading Environments invites academics, students and interested members of the public to delve into and discuss work in – and adjacent to – the Environmental Humanities, helping us navigate the changing environmental contexts of the planet. Excerpts are read in the context of art works on view in the gallery.