For Better or for Worse: Translation as a Tool for Change in the South Pacific

293 Pages·2014·1.83 MB·English

by  Sabine Fenton

For Better or Worse
Translation as a Tool for Change
in the South Pacific
Edited by
Sabine Fenton
Firstpublished2003bySt.[eromePublishing
Published2014byRoutledge
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Translationasatool forchangeinthesouthpacifieIeditedbySabineFenton.
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ISBN 1-900650-67-3 (pbk. :alk. paper)
I. Translatingand interpreting--Oeeania. 1.Fenton,Sabine.
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2003012233
Front Cover
A reconstruction of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, 1840, shows
Kawiti signing the Treaty, watched by witnesses Rev. Richard Taylor and
Mr James Stuart Freeman (standing at right of table-end). At the second
table Hone Heke (in cap) shakes hands with Governor William Hobson.
The seated figure on Hobson’s left (i.e. our right) is James Busby. The
group of Maori in the left foreground are being challenged by one man
(Marupo) with taiaha. Other figures include Joseph Nias, Willoughby
Shortland, Rev. Henry Williams, William Colenso, Samuel Ironside, Felton
Mathew, Charles Baker, Tamati Waka Nene, Patuone, Hakitara, Tareha
and Whareahi.
From the Drawings & Prints Collection – Mitchell.
Creator: Leonard Cornwall Mitchell (1901-1971).
Published on the cover of the New Zealand Journal of Agriculture,
January 1949.
Courtesy of the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, N.Z.
(cid:84)(cid:104)(cid:105)(cid:115)(cid:32)(cid:112)(cid:97)(cid:103)(cid:101)(cid:32)(cid:105)(cid:110)(cid:116)(cid:101)(cid:110)(cid:116)(cid:105)(cid:111)(cid:110)(cid:97)(cid:108)(cid:108)(cid:121)(cid:32)(cid:108)(cid:101)(cid:102)(cid:116)(cid:32)(cid:98)(cid:97)(cid:110)(cid:107)
For Daniel
who had to translate himself
several times in his young life
(cid:84)(cid:104)(cid:105)(cid:115)(cid:32)(cid:112)(cid:97)(cid:103)(cid:101)(cid:32)(cid:105)(cid:110)(cid:116)(cid:101)(cid:110)(cid:116)(cid:105)(cid:111)(cid:110)(cid:97)(cid:108)(cid:108)(cid:121)(cid:32)(cid:108)(cid:101)(cid:102)(cid:116)(cid:32)(cid:98)(cid:97)(cid:110)(cid:107)
Contents
Introduction 1
SABINE FENTON
The Humpty Dumpty Principle at Work 11
The Role of Mistranslation in the British Settlement of Aotearoa
The Declaration of Independence and He Whakaputanga
o te Rangatiratanga o nga hapu o Nu Tireni
MARGARET MUTU
Survival by Translation 37
The Case of Te Tiriti o Waitangi
SABINE FENTON AND PAUL MOON
Translating the Ancestors 63
Grey’s Polynesian Mythology
JOHN O’LEARY
Interpreting as a Tool for Empowerment 89
of the New Zealand Deaf Community
RACHEL LOCKER MCKEE
Translation in New Caledonia 133
Writing (in) the Language of the Other
The ‘Red Virgin’, the Missionary, and the Ethnographer
RAYLENE RAMSAY
Foreigner Talk to Exonorm 171
Translation and Literacy in Fiji
PAUL GERAGHTY
Decolonization by Missionaries of Government 207
The Tokelau Case
TONY ANGELO AND TIONI VULU
The Translation of Queen Sälote’s Poetry 241
MELENAITE TAUMOEFOLAU
Notes on Contributors 273
Index 277
Introduction
Terra Incognita
In Translation Studies the Pacific region is terra incognita. While in other
parts of the once colonized world postcolonial scholars have scrutinized
the history and role of translation, exposing its close relationship with the
colonizers, this has not yet happened in our region. The related disci-
plines of anthropology, ethnography, linguistics, and culture studies have
already discovered the Pacific region as a rich and rewarding field of in-
vestigation. Translation Studies have yet to follow suit.
The contributors to this volume – translation specialists, scholars of
Translation Studies, Literature, Law, Linguistics and Pacific Studies –
open a window onto some of the South Pacific nations through transla-
tion. They are concerned with many aspects of the theory and practice of
translation in colonial, postcolonial and contemporary contexts. While
some writers in this volume of essays are beginning to disclose that in the
Pacific, as in all other once colonized parts of the world, colonialism and
translation went hand in hand, and to focus on the losses which have been
so strongly emphasized in many comments on translation, others make a
case for substantial gains through the power of translation, a notion that is
still emerging in Translation Studies. All authors explore the vital role
translation has played in defining, changing and redefining linguistic, cul-
tural, ethnic and political identities in the nations of the Pacific. Examples
of the role of translation in the change for better or for worse abound in
the history of this region. These stories are being told here as a first at-
tempt to bring this vast area to the attention of the Western academic
world – the cultural audience of postcolonialism and into the mainstream
of investigation in Translation Studies.
The Pacific Ocean, the largest geographical feature on Earth, is home
to more than 20,000 islands and over 5 million indigenous islanders. They
were the last people on Earth to be discovered by the Europeans, some as
recently as 50 years ago. When the Pacific peoples encountered Europe-
ans there were far-reaching consequences for both sides. “The collision
of the two worlds changed both the Pacific and Europe” (Fischer 2002:
xvi). While much of the world still today views the Pacific as a tropical
paradise of small islands with white beaches and palm trees, the region,
experiencing accelerated change, has been under pressure from political
2 Introduction
and social tensions. The latter half of the last century saw many islands
emerge from the patronage of their colonial masters, demanding greater
autonomy and indigenous rights. A ‘New Pacific’ is emerging from the
struggles, “home to an innovative hybrid people wishing to incorporate
the best of both worlds, the Pacific and the West” (ibid. 2002: xii).
Three distinct cultural areas make up the Pacific Islands. Melanesia
comprises the islands of the Southwest Pacific below the equator, Micro-
nesia lies to the East of the Philippines and North of the Equator, and
Polynesia stretches out through the Eastern half of the South Pacific. Al-
though this division into Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia is a rather
crude categorization, attributed to the explorer Dumont Durville in 1828,
it was adopted by early French and British anthropologists (Ward 1999:
188) and for the purpose of easy identification is used here. The contribu-
tors to this volume are concerned with three islands of Polynesia – New
Zealand, Tokelau and Tonga – and two islands of Melanesia – New Cal-
edonia and Fiji. The choice does not represent in any way a value judgement
but is merely the expression of the contributors’ research interests.
Some fifty years ago historians viewed the Pacific Islanders’ encoun-
ter with the Europeans as a ‘Fatal Impact’ (Fischer 2002: xviii). “From
this time onward the islands were pawns in the great game of interna-
tional rivalries” (Oliver 1961: 97). Colonized by the British, French and
Germans, the Pacific Islanders were mostly portrayed as naïve victims of
foreign exploitation and domination. This view of the effects of coloniza-
tion is also shared by many postcolonial writers on translation. They have
scrutinized and exposed the role translation played in the processes of
colonization and termed the close relationship between both the “shame-
ful history of translation” (Bassnett and Trivedi 1999: 5). Today, however,
many Pacific scholars recognize in their historic analyses the fact that the
Pacific Islanders were not only victims but also played an active role in
the cross-cultural events they were party to, helping to shape their own
destinies. The writers of this volume of papers on translation in the Pa-
cific are therefore putting forward a politics of double-inheritance on the
one hand. Their essays provide evidence of the total transformation of the
Pacific by the arrival of the Europeans. On the other hand, however, they
also demonstrate the extent to which the changes were and still are today
co-directed by the natives themselves. “More than any other issue, na-
tionalist aspirations now define the politics of the South Pacific” (Robie
1989: 15). The positive role translation has played in redefining Pacific
identities and guaranteeing their survival is thus also examined by some