Abstracts Category : Other

Whakaponono ki a te Karaiti : exploring Christian-Mori identity through contemporary Christian songwriting

by Shannon J Said

This project investigates how Christian-Mori identity finds expression in contemporary Christian songwriting practice, within Calvary Life Outreach (CLO), an independent Pentecostal church located in southwest Sydney with a predominantly Mori congregation. The thesis explores this churchs diaspora Christian-Mori identity through interviews with Christian-Mori leaders in New Zealand, a focus group with members of the CLO church, and then investigates how the New Zealand perspectives are received by CLO in relation to an album of Christian songs, written as part of the thesis, and for use within the CLO church itself. This album also creates a framework for other diaspora church communities to explore similar cultural realities within their unique contexts. The aim of this project is twofold: firstly, to consider issues that are deemed important to CLO congregants and the New Zealand interviewees in light of their Christian-Mori identity, which draws upon historical and contemporary influences and expressions of Christian-Mori identity and its practice. Secondly, this thesis explores how social and sonic expressions of Christian identity serve to bolster and encourage Moritanga (a sense of being Mori) within this diaspora community through their musical practice. The theoretical framework of this project draws on a Kaupapa Mori methodology, which seeks to validate and legitimise Mori ontological and epistemological realities in research as research. This approach highlights the necessity of relationship building as a means of effective engagement with Mori communities, alongside the importance of allowing participants to inform and direct the development of such research. To this end, Christian-Mori leaders from New Zealand have shared interview perspectives around what Christian-Mori identity means to them in their contexts, especially within the Christian Church, and how a sense of Mori identity can be expressed through a song album. Further, CLO has highlighted its concerns as a diaspora Christian-Mori community. The issues raised between these two communities highlighted how Christian-Mori identity differs in its expression between New Zealand and Australia, and the way that a diaspora community expresses its sense of collective identity through the song album. ix The concerns that have been raised include the legacy of colonialism within church settings, and the importance of all ethnic minority groups, including Mori, to express Christian worship in a way that is not inhibited by the practices of the dominant (Anglophonic) church culture. One of the overriding concerns of the participants is that every tribe and tongue has a space afforded them to worship in spirit and truth that is, to use culturally diverse musical manifestations to articulate heartfelt Christian worship within congregational settings. In light of these considerations, a song album has been created by me and members of CLO addressing a range of themes based around Christian spirituality, Christian- Mori/MalteseAdvisors/Committee Members: Western Sydney University. School of Humanities and Communication Arts (Host institution).