From traditional carving to the plastic Tiki: tourism in Aotearoa

If travel is the force of historical change then the exotic subject that is the native could be relegated to the sideshow, the guide and they would in time deteriorate into the add on trinket maker and part-time curio savage. In some areas it seems this is their destiny, in others self-determination ensures they are not. We can all vision the tourism stereotype of the semi naked, exotic grass skirted Hawaiian dancer with the flower behind her hair, or the spear carrying Aboriginal standing on one leg with a red sunset framing his black skinned figure. Tourism successfully creates an image often by freezing history to ensure the travelers native 'experience' is in line with a frozen concept of how or what the native should look like. Reality has no place for the popularist tourist interpretation. Māori predate the modern stereotype as they became active within the tourism industry from as early as the 1870's in remote Lake Rotomahana. This early exposure became the foundation of what is now a 'cultural Disneyland'; ... modern Rotorua. With its 'authentic' native feasts and dancers spinning and twirling in chorographic unison set to the timing of the tourist bus schedule, even the geysers seem to respond to attendances and the click of a camera shutter. Yet this is not authentic Māori. One must question has Māori survived outside of the tourist bubble, maintaining their cultural integrity within a modem age? Has Tikanga; the Māori value system survived or has it evolved, changing with society or has the historical journey left them behind? Or is Māori culture moving forward as culture is not a constant. The paper discusses one aspect of Māoridom, the development and transition of carving styles within the umbrella of travel and tourism. This short paper will discuss if travel has impacted on the artist in their own tourist journeys or has the industry of tourism with the ever increasing demands of the travelling pakeha consumer impacted on the artist, changing their standards. An Indigenous standpoint approach encompassing Kaupapa Māori research methodology will investigate if the impact of tourism, of the traveller has forced historical change