Bone people

dakóta alcantara-camacho
Verna Zafra
April 9, 2012
EN461-01
PART 1

• Keri Hulme
• Born March 9, 1947 in
Christchurch, New Zealand
• English, Scottish, and Maori (KāiTahu) ancestry
• Considers herself Maori instead of Pakeha
(person of European descent)
• Often spent time with extended family from
mother’s side in Moeraki
• Began writing poems and short stories at the age
of 12
(New Zealand Book Council; CoursePak)

• Earlier publications written under KaiTainui
• Other works include The Silences Between
(1982), Te Kaihu:TheWindeater (1986), and
Homeplaces (1989)
• Self-proclaimed neuter, no children
• Currently lives in Okarito, New Zealand
• Began pursuing a law degree,
but stopped after four terms
• At 25, tried to write full-time, but
was forced to take “odd” jobs
(New Zealand Book Council)

• Hulme’s first novel
• Began in Motueka, 1966
> First dreams of Simon
> Short story “Simon Peter’s Shell”
• Completed at Moeraki and Okarito,
1978
• Mother helped in the revisions
•Took 12 years and 7 versions to
finish

• Rejected by several publishers
• Finally published in 1984 by
Spiral, a feminist collective
based in Wellington
• Awards:
> New Zealand Book Award for
Fiction (1984)
> Mobil Pegasus Award (1984)
> Booker Prize (1985)

• Aotearoa / New Zealand
• Remote island country
> One of the last to be
inhabited by humans
• Part of Polynesia
• South Pacific Ocean,
southeast of Australia
• Novel written in South
Island
• Events of novel take place
in North Island
(New Zealand History Online)
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~blanchec/regions_map.gif

• Events in the novel and publication of the novel: 1980s
• Period in New Zealand history of increased efforts to
raise “awareness and acceptance of Maoritanga […]
and for acknowledgement of Maori as the tangata
whenua (people of the land)”

•Waitangi Day:
> Annual holiday to
commemorate signing of
theTreaty of Waitangi
•Treaty of Waitangi
> Feb. 6, 1840
> Pact between Britain and
the Maoris
> Equal rights, Maori land
ownership, governance
under the British Crown
>Theory vs. Practice
• Protest of Waitangi Day
http://www.treaty2u.govt.nz/cool-stuff/cartoons/index.htm

• Non-traditional plot – “spiraling”
• Unique narration:
>Third-person point of view
> Stream of consciousness
> Dreams, journal entries, poems
• Language and diction
> English with Maori words and phrases
(translation glossary)
> Mix of British/New Zealander vernacular
and archaic speech
• Reflects pattern of Maori rhythm

• Setting:
> Whangaroa (Holmes, Gillayley residence)
> Moerangi (beach retreat)
•Time Frame:
> Prologue: 1981 or beyond…
> Main storyline: 1980 – 1981(?)
> Epilogue: 1981 or beyond…
• Main characters:
> Kerewin Holmes
> Joseph Gillayley
> Simon Gillayley
• Minor characters:
>TheTainuis
> Binny Daniels
>Tiaki Mira

• Questions of Maoriness / The Right to Write
> One Maori great-grandparent = 1/8 Maori
> “The Bone People […] is a novel by a Pakeha
which has won an award intended for a Maori”
(Stead 104)
> Time span to write the novel “reflects the
difficulty of expressing or achieving a national
voice when the national identity in question is
confused, diffused and derivative” (Broidy 164)
(Contemporary Literary Criticism, Stead)

• Acknowledging the Maori and Blending New Zealand
Cultures
> The novel “... [D]oes not merely shed light on a small
but complex and sometimes misunderstood country, but
also, more generally, enlarges our sense of life’s possible
dimensions” (Ward 163)
> Kerewin’s character promotes a collective Maori stand
“… against Pakeha ecology and social hegemony in New
Zealand today” (Jacobs) 165
> “The Bone People works because it draws on both
Maori and Pakeha cultural traditions” (Hughes 255)
(Contemporary Literary Criticism, CoursePak)

• Broken Families
• Isolation
• Identity and Cultural Loss

Hou :
1. (stative) be new, recent, modern.
Koru:
1. (noun) Colensoa physaloides - a shrubby plant found in
shady areas and stream banks .The attractive soft,
dark green, large leaves are prominently veined and
serrated. Deep blue, tubular flowers occur for several
months from spring.The berries are also dark blue
2. (noun) fold, loop, coil, curled shoot
3. (noun) symbol used in Māori art as a symbol of
creation, represents new leaf of fern frond, new life,
new beginnings, new possibilities, awakening,
positive change.
Hōu Koru
(Te Aka Māori-English, English-Māori Dictionary and Index Online)

Hōu Koru
Hōu Koru (noun): A literary
device used by indigenous
(Maori) authors to envision,
to create, give life to, (new)
solutions to (old) Problems.

Hōu Koru
(Old) Problems:
• Dealing with domestic violence
• Mending broken families
• Finding one’s identity

Keep these questions in mind as we finish reading
The Bone People:
1. Do you see any spirals or “koru” in the book?
2. What new beginnings, awakenings, or
personal transformations do you see within
the text?
3. At the beach house, Joe says he feels
remorseful for hitting his son, yet continues
to hit him…What complex relationship does
each character have with violence?

4. Kerewin says, "It's very strange, but whereas by
blood, flesh and inheritance, I am but an eighth
Maori, by heart, spirit, and inclination, I feel all
Maori" (61) – How are modern concepts of race
complicated by this book?
5. How does spirituality appear throughout the
text and what function does it have? How do the
characters become enhanced by their spiritual
relationships?
6. How would you write the ending of this book?

- Finish The Bone People!
- Read the critical essay “Reawakening”
by Benediktsson
> Sent via email 03/26
> Want a hardcopy? Just ask..
- Ponder the discussion questions
and bring back the handout

dakóta alcantara-camacho
Verna Zafra
April 16, 2012
EN461-01
PART 2

• (Old) Problem: Family violence
> “… [W]oe betide the brat if he doesn’t do whatever he’s
told to [...]The matter is settled right then, thump, that’s
it. It always looks so ridiculous, Joe hefty and twice his
child’s size – but that’s the way we do it in good old
Godzone” (95)
• (New) Solution: Collective responsibility
> “‘I swear on his head […] not to hit him again. If he
deserves it, I’ll tell you and you can decide’ […] ‘A smidgin
of responsibility, a scantling, a scruple of responsibility I
accept’” (195)
> “‘I wasn’t going to hit him […] I said I wouldn’t, without
you agreeing, and I meant that.’” (269)
Hōu Koru: Violence

Hōu Koru: Family
• (Old) Problem: Mending broken families
Kerewin: "Yet, Nobody's stomped on my heart except family, so why am I
mistrustful of people” (69)
Joe: Grieving from loss of wife and child.
Simon: surviving orphanage and abuse who can’t remember where he comes
from
• (New) Solution: Creating ‘New’ Family
Joe: "Kerewin... I was trying to maker her fit my idea of what a friend, a
partner was. I could see only the one way... whatever she thought she was,
bend her to the idea that lovers are, marriage is, the only sanity. Don't accept
merely what she can offer, make her give and take more.. now i can see other
possibilities, other ways, and there is still a hope..." (381)
Kerewin: ”Did you think I could build a square house? So the round shell house
holds them all in its spiraling embrace. Noise and riot, peace and quiet, all is
music in the sphere."

Hōu Koru: Identity & ‘Assimilation’
• (Old) Problem: Finding One’s Identity & ‘Assimilation’
“I can blame my grandfather… I think he was ashamed, secretly
ashamed of my Nana and her Maoriness… he took it out on me for
being like her, for being dark, and speaking Maori” (227)
(New) Solution: Spiritual Healing
“Ruapahu! (Nonsense)You are a sick man, a broken man, but now it is
time for you to heal, to be whole.To flourish and bear fruit. Go to
sleep.”
“[Joe] talks a lot that night. About the Kaumatua.About Simon. About
Kerewin. About the dream world, and the world of the dead. About
legends and myths, and nine canoes, tatau pounamu, the possible new
world, the impossible new world’ (377)

Please get into groups of 2-3 and
discuss one of the questions
posed from Part 1.Write which
question your group
would like to talk
about on the board.

1.) “Transgressing Boundaries”
~ Mary Ann Hughes
2.) “Good-Eating: Ethics and Biculturalism
in Reading ‘The Bone People’”
~ Philip Armstrong
3.) “Reawakening the Gods: Realism and
the Supernatural in Silko and Hulme”
~Thomas E. Benediktsson

“Transgressing Boundaries”
by Mary Ann Hughes
• Analyzes popular critiques of Hulme
writing as a Maori
• Examines different “boundaries” crossed
in the novel
> Cultural, racial, social, religious
• Blending and portrayal of both Pakeha
and Maori cultures, instead of the
marginalization of one or the other

“Good-Eating: Ethics and Biculturalism in
Reading ‘The Bone People’”
by Philip Armstrong
• Moral reading: reader puts him- or herself in
the position of the protagonist
• Raises questions of ethical behavior in the
novel
>Violence, sacrifice, cannibalism
• Connects eating trope to approaching
postcolonial text and biculturalism

“Reawakening the Gods: Realism and the
Supernatural in Silko and Hulme”
byThomas E. Benediktsson
•Realism can be regulated by hegemony
•Indigenous authors resist dominance through defying
“realist” notions
•Connections in Indigenous Authors Responses to
Colonialism
•Create “fictive realm of possibility and power” (123)
•Political Connections – nationalist struggle and self
determination
•Post-Colonial Identity – skin color, heritage, androgyny
•EmbracingTraditional Spiritual Healing fromTrauma of
Colonialism

FreeWrite Part 1:
Pick a “real” cultural or identity issue that
affects your day-to-day life. Write about how
it impacts you, and your relationship with
yourself, your family, and your friends .

FreeWrite Part 2:
Imagine some kind of supernatural / mystical /
spiritual intervention that has taken place or
will take place in your life.
In what form does it manifest? How does your
encounter with the supernatural / spiritual
help you deal with your issue?
Try to localize or indigenize your freewrite.

Follow link:
http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/kai-
purakau-1987

Works Cited
Armstrong, Philip. "Good-eating : Ethics and Biculturalism in Reading
„The Bone People‟." Ariel: A Review of International English
Literature 2.32 (2001): 7-27. Web.
Benediktsson, Thomas E. "The Reawakening of the Gods : Realism
and the Supernatural in Silko and Hulme." Critique: Studies in
Contemporary Fiction 2.33 (1992): 121-131. Web.
“Coursepak.” EN461. University of Guam. TS.
“Hulme, Keri.” New Zealand Book Council. New Zealand Book
Council, n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2012.
Hulme, Keri. The Bone People. New York: Penguin Books, 1986. Print.
"Keri Hulme." Contemporary Literary Criticism: Yearbook 1985. Vol.
39. Detroit: Gale Research Co,1986. 158-167. Print.

Works Cited
“Keri Hulme.” New Zealand Literature File. University of Auckland, n.d.
Web. 20 Mar. 2012.
New Zealand History Online. History Group of the New Zealand
Ministry for Culture and Heritage, 16 Mar. 1999. Web. 24 Mar.
2012.
Stead, C.K. “Keri Hulme‟s „The Bone People‟ and the Pegasus Award
for Maori Literature.” Ariel 16.4 (1985): 101-108. Web.
Te Aka Māori-English, English-Māori Dictionary and Index Online.
Pearson Education New Zealand , n.d. 3 Apr. 2012.

Bone people

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