New Zealand Māori support Chumash on Indigenous Peoples’ Day
A shared cultural practice of facial tattooing is explored between two indigenous peoples from opposite sides of the world.
On the face of it you could not find two people more different as Deborah Sanchez and Arekatera (Katz) Maihi, each originates from different hemispheres, however they share one very visible similarity that is strikingly overt – they both have their faces tattooed. Sanchez is a Chumash woman who is heavily involved in her community and currently holds the role of Chair of the Wishtoyo Chumash Foundation, she also is a Superior Court Judge in Los Angeles and teacher of the Šmuwič (Chumash) Language. Maihi travelled to Los Angeles in 2017 as part of a touring exhibition from New Zealand and is founder of Toitu Design firm as well as being an accomplished musician who has travelled to as far flung destinations as the middle east to seek out other cultures. When the two cultures met in 2017 this meeting produced a powerful display of cultural unity and sparked the beginning of a cultural renaissance that will have impact on generations.
The Māori delegation departed New Zealand for California to deliver the Tuku Iho: A Living Legacy exhibition which featured over 60 pieces of carved and woven artifacts art as well as live demonstrations of traditional song and dance and customary tattoo demonstrations; Maihi being the resident tattoo artist. One feature of this touring exhibition that the public would not have seen though was a special day of ceremony organized by the local Chumash tribe who hosted the Māori delegation at their ancestral lands at the Wishtoyo Cultural Centre in Malibu, Sanchez helped facilitate that welcome ceremony. The closed-door ceremony in Malibu was a celebration of local tradition and sharing stories of common experience and ultimately was a story of cultural solidarity between two Pacific people.
It is hard to think of a move overt symbol of culture than a facial tattoo. In Aotearoa New Zealand Tā Moko or traditional tattooing has undergone somewhat of a renaissance over the last decade to the point where the national airline now accepts cabin crew to display their traditional tattoos as well as roles like those in the military and police relaxing a lot of the restrictions around Tā Moko being on display by their employees . In the United States the Chumash people have had many years of cultural oppression including California at one-point places bounties on the heads of people who displayed their Moč or cultural tattoo. Cut forward to 2017 and Maihi found himself face to face with a young Chumash woman who asked him to help her by tattooing her chin. “my first response was that if this is something sacred to your people maybe you need to find someone from inside your people to do this.” The response from the young lady back to him was that there wasn’t anyone else to do it. Maihi recalls that it took him a couple of days to agree to help and recalls that he did not want to cross a cultural line. After assurances from the girls’ father that he had full permission to proceed he said that then sparked a deep connection that and relationship that they have maintained ever since.
Fast forward 3 years and we were able to reconnect Maihi and Sanchez to discuss the lasting outcomes of that meeting of cultures in 2017 Sanchez says “There is a deep connection that we both feel to the ocean to each other and that the revitalization of the culture, we look to each other for hope.” Since the Tuku Iho exhibition and Maihi’s initial tattoo of that pioneering young woman there have been an additional 7 women sign up to receive their Moč. “To find that it has grown and that there are people from within the [nation] who are now practicing their art now. It’s awesome.” Says Maihi.
Despite living in different hemispheres Sanchez and Maihi shared connection with the Pacific still shines brightly with Sanchez even going so far as to say that: “our story shows our connection …we normally think of [the Chumash] as being on the West Coast because [of the proximity to] Washington DC… however we are can also look at it as actually originating on the Eastern Coast of the Pacific Ring, it changes things when you look at it that way.”
There is also a commitment by both people to continue the cultural dialogue. Maihi mentions that when the world returns to relative normality and as soon as borders allow “we want to come back [to the United States]. hearing that my contribution to tattoo a young woman has had an impact with the Chumash “Knowing that this little Māori boy from down here helped to be a part of the revival of a culture is very special.”
- Renata West
