Processional performances in Norway and New Zealand: a comparative discussion.

This thesis examines the procession from within a performance framework. Four processions were chosen as examples to be compared: Two of these were the Norwegian “Children’s parade” (Barnetog) and “Parade for the graduating high school students” (Russetog) both occurring as a part of the country’s National Day celebrations in Oslo (2007). The other two occurred in New Zealand, the first being the “Tomb of the Unknown Warrior” held in Wellington (2004). This was a ceremonial event commemorating the return of one of New Zealand’s unknown dead from a WWI battlefield. The second procession from New Zealand was the “Maori Land March/Te matakite o Aotearoa” (1975), which was a protest march concerning land rights and ownership and performed by the indigenous people of New Zealand. Through the choice of main theorists, Richard Schechner and Elizabeth Burns, a dual purpose to the thesis emerged: Firstly the work asks how, and to what degree, might the four processions be seen to be performances of national identity. This includes looking at the way in which each procession might be seen to be an embodiment, or re-enactment/restoration of the founding document of the country in which it occurs/occurred. For Norway this is her 1814 Constitution, and for New Zealand this is the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi. Secondly, the work attempts to make contextually loaded sense of two schools of thought within theatre studies; the performance perspective as described by Richard Schechner and concepts concerning theatricality as described by Elizabeth Burns. In terms of how the two perspectives interacted with the objects of research, generally, the performance perspective was seen to be more open and inclusive where aspects of are performance occurring at all levels within and around the performance space. By contrast, theatricality was perceived to be more closed, being convention bound and constrained. Both perspectives lent themselves to finding, or imposing, narratives on essentially non-narrative events. Further, the work draws on some of the theories of Victor Turner and Eric Rothenbuhler. Turner’s concept of the social drama, together with a Schechnerian performance concept of gathering, performing and dispersing, was utilised in order to consider the ways in which this might enable a connection of these processions with the founding document of their respective country. Rothenbuhler’s ideas on ritual served as a “checklist” to keep the investigation from assumptive reasoning, and to briefly discuss the effect of the televisation/digitalisation of the events, though again this was done by linking the subject matter to a performance framework. Moreover, throughout the process of writing, a kind of discursive spiral emerged. A first meeting with the objects of research was preconceptionally conditioned, but though the application of the theory to the processional performances, new understandings and meanings become apparent – both in relation to the theory and the processions. Finally, this work has emerged from the author’s position as a New Zealander living in Norway. The analysis of these processions from the two cultures between which she stands came with an aim to finding a certain level of coherence surrounding an idea of being “Kiwiegian”