Women in Black
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.
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)