A ‘Strange Island’: Mapping Waiheke’s festivalscape

Often described as a “strange island,” Waiheke’s unique identity is deeply intertwined with its rich festival culture.

Waiheke was chosen as the focus for a study on island festivals  because these events have always been an important and integral part of this island’s community life and are often linked to the island’s rich activist culture, which has used festivals as a way of community-building and protesting on social issues. Waiheke’s island identity and economy also contribute significantly to the tourism product of Auckland City.

The research explored island festivals as performance events that construct and negotiate meaning for the hosting island community and the visitors that come to the island to participate. Through the mapping of Waiheke Island’s festivalscape, other related concepts like festivalization and festival reclamation were also explored and the contribution of the island’s festival culture to its identity and community organization. Data for this research was collected through interviews with island inhabitants who have been involved in organizing and volunteering for festivals and ethnographic observations, partly participatory, by one author, John Stansfield, who has been a Waiheke Island community member and activist for over three decades.

Despite the festivalization of Waiheke’s festivalscape, many of these events, past and present, reflect its distinct “strange island” identity. This concept used by Baragwanath and Lewis to describe Waiheke, was borrowed from Sarah Neal, a British academic whose expression of “strange towns” – meaning different from the norm – was used to explore why some small, rural towns in Britain have become associated with progressive politics and radical or countercultures.

Waiheke has been viewed as a “strange island” in terms of its high levels of activism and ways in which different groups mobilize in order to preserve its distinctiveness, including its strong values of sustainability embedded in the island way of life. As the organizer of one festival expressed: 

“Waiheke in general has always had this very staunch, well for my lifetime at least, sustainability-focused culture and Junk to Funk was just an amazing opportunity to show that off and to really celebrate our uniqueness and our artsiness and our creativeness, our eco-warriorness which we all have here on the island too.” 

This resourcefulness around sustaining the eco-friendly values that living on a small island demands is manifesting in different aspects of the island’s festivalscape, including the strong festival volunteering tradition. When one local was asked why they volunteer for the zero-waste stall in one festival, the reply was indicative of the island’s strong sustainability ethos:

“I struggle when I go to events that are not organized using a zero-waste kaupapa, so attending events where waste [is] minimized and sorted makes me happy. It is better for the venue and event organizers as they are thinking beyond the walls of their events and thinking about the footprint they are having on their environment. The wider community benefits by having access to compost that is created from food scraps and compostable and jobs are created through this process. It also spreads the message about minimising waste to vendors and an audience of participants that may not be familiar to this way of being.”

Part of Waiheke’s strong island identity has to do with its earlier low-income, single-parent households and its artist and activist population, but also with the fact that until 1989, it was governed by the Waiheke County Council. To the islanders’ disappointment and strong protest, it was then amalgamated into Auckland City Council, and one of the first effects of this change was the loss of their fledgling recycling scheme, which was recently reclaimed, another tastement to the island’s fighting spirit.

Waihekeans, like many island communities, are sensitive to loss of sovereignty and have developed a culture of demanding more control over where they live. This desire for self-determination is a persistent theme in the island’s history, and its challenging relationships with government bodies can be linked to this value, making a fertile ground for community development:

“I think a festival like this [Junk to Funk] brings different community groups together and creates further relationships between people helping one another, understanding organizations and what they stand for.” (festival volunteer)

Developed by the WRT Education team, the much-loved festival has showcased the island’s creative talent by producing wearable art from the waste stream. It used strategies where existing events, such as the local market and music festivals, provided opportunities for community engagement. These events were the forerunners of the Sustainability Festival – spanning ten days and hosting over fifty events involving many other clubs and environmental organizations.

“I think it really did contribute to the identity and culture of the island, and that was a deliberate ploy on our part. We were out to create social norms around reducing and reusing, particularly before you recycle ... So, the culture we were fostering was one of togetherness; we are all in this together looking after the planet; we are here to look after each other as well; we are here to not squander the precious resources of the earth, and I think that is an integral part of the identity of Waiheke Islanders. (Junk to Funk Festival organizer)”

“I think it had lasting social value to the community at large about bringing us all together and giving us a chance to show off the wonderful works of our young people. And I think, extending a bit further from that, it taught a whole generation and a half really of young people on the island how to be resourceful for themselves and how to think of art in a very unique way and how to get involved and be engaged in waste in a very Waiheke way.” (Festival organizer)

Despite the increasing number of commercial festivals that aim at branding the island as a tourist and cultural events destination, there is still a persisting culture of and desire for local festivals for the islanders and by the islanders (community engagement). As one festival volunteer expressed:

“I hope that these festivals and community occasions continue to happen because I think that there is something truly magic around the arts, around festivals that the media and that television and movies just don’t have. It is a different type of magic, and it is very unique, and it takes a little bit more energy, but it is a whole lot more satisfying.”

Local festivals are often associated with the concept of sustainable islands, and Waiheke has proven that to be the case. One of the emerging themes from this research was a “just do it” Waiheke culture that many locals believe is part of their island identity. This island seems to be rich in human capital, which is in line with the literature on island character. High levels of volunteerism, necessary for sustaining such a rich festivalscape, are part of this. Waiheke’s openness to experiment, part of its “strange island” nature, manifests as a “voyage of discovery” for the community when they embark on something new, as so many of its festivals have demonstrated.

However, as the island’s population is changing due to increasing unaffordability, its entrenched association with alternative lifestyles, counter-cultural developments and activism is also affected. Although one can still identify elements of this distinctive character in many island activities, including the festivals, they might be interpreted differently by different groups, like one festival volunteer shared:

“I think with Waiheke becoming a growing destination with all sorts of different types of people coming here, there has been a fear that we are losing our sense of identity and a lot of people are moving off the island. So, I think a festival like this [Fossil Fuel Free Fiesta] really brings people together and makes them think about what is important to them. They have to create something together. It is around what our values are as a community, what we want to protect. What we want our children, the future generation, to be investing energy into and really coming up with ideas which sort of celebrate Waiheke and what it means to be.”

The concept of geographical imaginaries is useful in referring to the different visions of what Waiheke is and should or could be, with the consequence that the ways in which people imagine Waiheke, in turn, affect how they behave. An imaginary is more specific than abstract imagination, as the latter implies an opening up of new possibilities and even utopian notions, while a geographical imaginary is a particular representation of a place that has effects on how participants create communities. It implies a cultural and political project in which the imagination is connected to identity and political economy, becoming, in effect, a discourse of place.

The festivals, integral to the island’s storytelling communicative ecology, help to construct island imaginaries but also act as a barometer in this changing island festivalscape. And on Waiheke, we have a paradox on display, one that sees the island’s imaginaries mobilized by different actors in different ways and for different reasons, creating tensions between the island community’s perceived notion of their identity and that of outsiders.

Valia Papoutsaki is the co-convenor of the Small Island Cultures Research Initiative (SICRI),  the co-editor of “Island Cultures and Festivals: a Creative Ecosystem” (UWI Press) and co-author  with Waiheke resident, John Stansfield of a chapter on  “Mapping Waiheke Island’s Festivalscape Community Activism and Festival Reclamation.” Contact Valia if you are interested in a copy.