Weaving Together: Aroha as Capacity and Work

Authors

  • Susan Wardell University of Otago

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11157/sites-id446

Keywords:

terrorism, Christchurch mosque attack, racism, decolonisation,

Abstract

This essay, pitched at a general (non-academic) audience, won the Maxim Institute Essay Competition in July 2019. It responded to a brief asking entrants to address the role of aroha and manaakitanga as frameworks for New Zealand’s long-term policy and cultural response to the Christchurch Mosque attack. The essay is presented below, with added (theoretical, methodological, pedagogical, and applied) discussion questions for social anthropologists and cultural theorists to consider, at the end.

Author Biography

  • Susan Wardell, University of Otago
    Dr Wardell is a Lecturer in the Social Anthropology Programme, at the University of Otago. Her research interests include emotion, care, mental health, affective pedagogies, disability, and digital worlds. She teaches courses such as ‘Death, Grief and Ritual’, and ‘The Anthropology of Evil’, as well as the ‘Anthropology of Religion and the Supernatural’. Responding to the events of March 2019 based on these interests, Dr Wardell’s current research involves interviews with diverse New Zealand-based participants, about their experiences (and practices) of ‘online care’ in the wake of the terrorist attack. She is also preparing a small project examine the construction of the one-year anniversary memorial activities in Christchurch.

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Published

10-10-2019

Issue

Vol. 16 No. 2 (2019)

Section

Articles

License

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How to Cite

Weaving Together: Aroha as Capacity and Work. (2019). Sites: A Journal of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies, 16(2). https://doi.org/10.11157/sites-id446