‘‘Everything is Ka Pai’’, CoraAllan Wickcliffe
Dunedin Public Art Gallery rear window
The video work Everything is Ka Pai in the Dunedin Public Art Gallery rear window exhibition space marks the welcome return of artist CoraAllan Wickliffe of Ngapuhi, Tainui and Alofi, Liku (Niue) descent to Otepoti/ Dunedin. In this short work, Wickliffe brings together two taonga (artefacts) from the 1950s: archival footage from the 195354 British Royal Tour to Aotearoa New Zealand, and the titular song Everything is Ka Pai, by Daphne Walker. Of course, everything is not ka pai (good, fine) in this charade of forced conviviality where coloniser meets colonised. From the (British) Royal party’s arrival on the ‘‘Gothic’’ (ship), Wickliffe focuses primarily on the powhiri (ceremonial exchange) between the British and Maori Royal (Kingitanga) families. The pivotal moment occurs when the lyric ‘‘I want to shake your hand’’ is edited to coincide with the two royal families shaking hands. In Wickliffe’s context (and indeed in postcolonial approaches more broadly) this act of precision editing can be interpreted as a weighty critique. It functions as an extension of Wickliffe’s overarching convergence between the royal families’ powhiri with the song. In such a context it becomes difficult to perceive the synchronicity of lyric and enacted powhiri as ambiguous or mere technical feat. Wickliffe’s critique of colonisation gains traction by layering up the apparent benignity of song and powhiri, and of lyric and physical handshaking.