A thing well made? NZ settler identity and Pakeha masculinity in the work of Don McGlashan

Abstract

This article investigates the interrelationship of settler identity and white masculinity in the work of New Zealand artist/musician Don McGlashan. His works, mostly popular song, but also including film and theatre, interrogate the dominant construction of New Zealand national identity, the Kiwi bloke. This is achieved by referring to a history of such representations from local popular and high culture, by revision and critique through setting them in modern, urban contexts and by juxtaposing diverse cultural elements and tropes from Pakeha culture, popular music, literature and film. I argue that to identify as both a Pakeha male and a ‘New Zealand artist’ requires a complex negotiation with discourses of local identity in relation to the location of artistic activity in a settler culture such as New Zealand.