Social Activism

Abstract

Social Activism focuses on Lange’s Māori Land Project (1980). At the intersection of militant film, collaborative practice, and indigenous political struggles in New Zealand, Lange joined the efforts of fellow documentary filmmakers to raise awareness and mobilise support for Māori over their land rights. This chapter traces the political and cultural debates and transformations taking place in the 1970s during the so-called Māori renaissance, a movement which sought self-determination, standing against colonialism and its enclosures of Māori land. The chapter critically examines the politics of representation in Lange’s engagement with his Māori collaborators and their demands for self-determination through visual representation. It draws from the theoretical framework of postcolonial studies debates in the 1980s (Said, Spivak) and more recent postcolonial literature coming out of Māori and Indigenous Studies in New Zealand (Hokowhitu, Boraman, Tuhiwai Smith). An activist impulse also lies behind Lange’s political multimedia musical performances People of the World (1983) and Aire del Mar (1988), briefly introduced at the end of the chapter.