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Evan Roberts (University of Minnesota): „The Peripatetic Career of Wherahiko Rawei
Māori culture in the global Chautauqua Circuit, 1893 – 1927‟
Abstract: The American lyceum, and its close cousin, the Chautauqua was a stage for an
international network of performers. This paper explores the career of Wherahiko Rawei,
a man of Māori and English descent who was part of the global lecture circuit for more
than thirty years. Rawei lectured in New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom
from 1893-1899. From 1899 to his death in 1927 he was a fixture on the United States
Chautauqua circuit, working nearly exclusively for the Redpath bureau after 1908. While
historians of the Chautauqua movement such as John Tapia and Charlotte Canning have
noted Rawei‟s presence on the Chautauqua circuit, they have presented his story
uncritically.
Based on new research in New Zealand and the United States I revisit Rawei‟s career,
and cast a new and more critical light on his performance. I place the continuing
popularity of Rawei‟s act in the United States in the mirror of the contemporaneous
export of Native American cultural shows to Europe. Rawei‟s act purported to tell the
story of a rapid Māori transition from “Cannibalism to Culture.” His biography of
adoption by a wealthy English woman, education at elite English schools, and conversion
to Christianity embodied his performance of a rapid Māori transition to civilized culture.
Yet Rawei‟s public biography was constructed, and crucial details changed over time to
suit different audiences.
Unchanging was Rawei‟s participation in the creation of a persistent myth that Māori
were the most “civilized” indigenous group in settler colonies. His performances
supported the notion that indigenous prospects under colonial settlement were not a
function of settler behavior, but inherent indigenous racial qualities. Yet Rawei also
claimed the privileges of being “civilized”. Despite not appearing white, Rawei asserted
the rights of a white man. While traveling in the South, he defied Jim Crow practices and
laws in several reported instances over his long career. Rawei was most popular though
in the Midwest, where the chronology of indigenous and European encounters was most
similar to New Zealand. His performances illustrate how the Chautauqua circuit brought
the world to America, yet sometimes did little to challenge its audience.