Pacific Arts: The Journal of the Pacific Arts Association

Coastal Cannibals is a photographic series exploring the impacts, contradictions, and possibilities of “development” within Whangārei Te Rerenga Paraoa (Whangārei Harbour). Located on New Zealand’s northeastern coast, Whangārei Harbour is a site of significant cultural, ecological, and historical significance for the different iwi (tribes) and hapū (subtribes) who have resided—and continue to reside—there. For these tribes, maintaining unbroken occupation has not been straightforward; the harbour is a contested and still-consumed space. Iwi and hapū contend with heavy industry, residential developments, and regional policies that both disregard tribal authority and disrupt kaitiakitanga (guardianship relations). Coastal Cannibals focuses on the harbour’s shoreline developments, where industry is both a source of tension for iwi and hapū, as it places huge pressures on the ocean and surrounding environs, and of necessary jobs and income for a historically underserviced region. For those committed to Indigeneity, occupation is never a straightforward affair. In the postcolonial tradition of “speaking back,” the photo series draws its title from a description used against the great Ngātiwai rangatira Paratene Te Manu prior to his and his tribe’s eviction from the nearby Te Hauturu-o-Toi (Little Barrier Island), asking us today: who is eating away at what?