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Women in Black

Women in Black
Gender and the cultural politics of care following the Christchurch mosque shoot

On March 15th 2019, Aotearoa New Zealand witnessed a violent terrorist attack against Muslims praying peacefully in two mosques, in the city of Christchurch. The unprecedented tragedy generated a significant collective response - including spontaneous memorialisation in the streets, social media campaigns, crowdfunding campaigns, and large public vigils around the country. This is especially notable considering the potentially fraught nature of a crime committed by a white supremacist, in a majority-white (postcolonial) nation, against a minority community. In this talk I draw on some of my ethnographic work, in Christchurch and online, to consider the multi-sited media work that contributed to producing the New Zealand Muslim community as appropriate care objects (i.e. 'good victims') and New Zealand as a caring nation, at this crucial time. I highlight and discuss the prominent role of gender across a range of representational (visual, discursive, and narrative) forms: including the presence of crying women, embracing women, heroic martyrs, protective policemen, widows/widowhood, and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Gendered bodies and categories become apparent as functioning to link affective and legal-bureaucratic structures of care.

Event Details

 

Tuesday 21 May 4pm

27UQ/01/003

 

Dr Susan Wardell

Affiliate of the Centre for Creative Ethnography at QUB

Senior Lecturer, Mātai Tikaka Takata​​​ (Social Anthropology Programme), Te Puna Pāpori (School of Social Sciences)
Te Whare Wänanga o Otago (University of Otago, Aotearoa New Zealand)