Flaxroots Productions
  • Home
  • Non-fiction
  • Fiction
  • Plays
  • Other Works
  • Professional
  • Blog
  • FlaxFlower
  • Review index
  • Contact
  • BMCWC

An absorbing read

7/1/2019

Comments

 
Picture

​I Have Loved Me A Man: The Life & Times of Mika
by Sharon Mazer 
with a Foreword by Witi Ihimaera


The author is an academic specialising in theatre and performance studies, and, as stated in the publisher’s explanatory publicity, in this book she ‘takes readers inside the social revolution that has moved New Zealand from the 1960s to the present day through the story of…gay Māori performance artist: Mika.’
    Adopted at birth into a Pākehā family, Neil Gudsell, later Mika, is the natural son of a Pākehā mother and a Māori father. From an early age he knew that he was gay, and embraced that knowledge. Somewhat later, he discovered his Māori heritage, and that, too, he embraced with enthusiasm. 
    As an openly gay Māori adolescent in Timaru in the 1960s and 70s, it might be expected that his life would have been a constant struggle against prejudice and worse, but from the beginning Mika seems to have had an abundance of insouciant self-belief as well as considerable physical strength and athleticism, and thus was able to be what he is without disguise and only minimal overt hostility directed against him.
    Later, in Christchurch, Mika (still Neil Gudsell at this stage) developed his physical and artistic skills through aerobics, jazzercise and various types of dancing, and from this base he established a career as a performer, and, for a time, as a television and movie actor.
    With the support of others, such as Carmen and Dalvanius Prime, Mika developed his own style typified by an exuberant physicality and sexuality, and was soon directing, dancing, singing and generally starring in a series of performances in New Zealand and overseas, particularly at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. There was always a political edge to these performances, a deliberate fostering of Gay Rights and Aids awareness, and they also incorporated the imitation of aspects of traditional Māori ritual, stylised Māori or Pasifika costume and set design and the use of props such as taiaha.
    Mika’s idiosyncratic interpretation of Māori culture was not always welcomed by Māori traditionalists, nor did his ‘camp’ style have much appeal to those who saw it as something quite distinct from ‘high’ art. But, as the author notes, Mika is a performer, a ‘quintessential showman’, whose whole approach challenges any such distinctions. The author describes Mika’s performance art as ‘postcolonial camp’, and as such, as being ‘celebratory but not utopian, political without being prescriptive, and critical without losing its sense of humour.’
    To some, the major interest in this book will be in the author’s analysis of the ways in which New Zealand society’s attitudes to matters of sexual identity and race have changed since the sixties. Others will be more interested in Mika the performer and the man. But an attempt to identify Mika is something like trying to shape a recognisable figure from quicksilver. Clearly there is something protean about him, just as there is about his performances. Perhaps the most identifiable trait is his empathy with young people, particularly Māori and Pasifika, who are struggling to establish a personal identity. In this regard, he has established a Trust with the mission to ‘ignite young minds and transform bodies towards better lives through the performing arts and physical culture.’
    The book is copiously illustrated with photographs from Mika’s own collection. Some of these are decidedly uninhibited, but that is Mika’s style. As Witi Ihimaera says in his Foreword: ‘He’s still fabulous… Still a star.’
    Whether your main interest is social history or the career of Mika himself, this is an absorbing read.

Review by Tony Chapelle
Title: I Have Loved Me A Man: The Life & Times of Mika
Author: Sharon Mazer 
Publisher: University of Auckland Press
ISBN: 9781869408862
RRP: $59.99
Available: bookshops

Comments
    Picture

    FlaxFlower Reviews

    Reviews on this page are of New Zealand books – that is, written by Kiwi authors.   
    They are written by independent reviewers not known to the authors.

    Join the posting list
    If you'd like to receive an email when a new book review is posted, please respond via the CONTACT function above.

    If you are a Kiwi author
    and would like your book reviewed send an email via this site and you’ll be sent further details. Give details of genre, length, short description, and formats available – print, ebook (Kindle, Kobo etc). You will need to provide one book free to the reviewer.

    If you’d like to be a reviewer
    send an email via this site giving details of your experience/expertise what genres interest you, and the formats you will consider – print, ebook (Kindle, Kobo etc). If possible, include a URL of one of your published reviews.
       Offer only if you take the task seriously and are certain you will deliver the review.
    ​

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.