title: Space invaders in surfing's white tribe: Exploring surfing, race and identity

authors: Wheaton, Belinda

abstract: As has been well documented, surfing has a long history as a Polynesian cultural form that, through colonization, was appropriated by white North Americans and Australians in the mid-twentieth century. As part of this process of appropriation, the activity was redefined and reorganized,drawing “nostalgically on an imagined cultural authenticity from Hawaii's Pre-colonial surfing past.” Since the 1950s, the quintessential image of the surfing body has been “phenotypically White,” specifically, a young, white, male subject, slim, toned, tanned—but not dark skinned—with a mop of sun-bleached hair. Fuelled by the Hollywood beach movies, and the surf music craze epitomized by the Beach Boys,in the United States the white, blonde surfer became so iconic he—and increasingly she—became the face of California. As Walker details in Waves of 2 Resistance this Colonial appropriation has not been without resistance in Hawai’i . Yet this particular image of surfing has subsequently been perpetuated more globally in both the surfing niche media and through wider mass media surfing discourses. Thus, although surfing’s imagery as a white, male, youthful, privileged activity and space is a relatively recent and contextually specific social construction, globally it has been, and remains the hegemonic one. 
My focus in this chapter is the experiences of surfers who do not fit this hegemonic ideal—specifically, those racialized as nonwhite. Surfing participants often claim—indeed believe—that surfing culture is inclusive of all,and that race and gender don’t matter. However, despite a desire for an inclusive and cosmopolitan citizenship, as I illustrate, surf culture and the surfing media continue to perpetuate what Chivers-Yochim terms an “imagined community” of whiteness. This chapter draws on a research project that explored the formative and contemporary experiences of minority ethnic surfers, predominantly African Americans, who lived and surfed around Los Angeles, California. I explore how these black surfers negotiate space and identity in the surfing culture, and their experiences of belonging and exclusion. 
First, I situate the case study within a broader understanding of sport, whiteness, and exclusion, highlighting research that reveals surfing in the United States and beyond as a gendered and racialized space. I also consider the central and problematic roles that surfing media and industry play in developing our sporting imagination. I then turn to the contradictory experiences of belonging of the black surfers in my case study, identifying some of the difficulties and barriers experienced by these surfers carving a space in a white-dominated cultural practice. While some aspects of their experiences and identities were shared with white and other ethnic-minority surfers, what was most revealing was the range of difficulties or constraints that many of these surfers had faced and which they saw as barriers to other African Americans becoming surfers.

text: Space invaders in surfing's white tribe: Exploring surfing, race and identity As has been well documented, surfing has a long history as a Polynesian cultural form that, through colonization, was appropriated by white North Americans and Australians in the mid-twentieth century. As part of this process of appropriation, the activity was redefined and reorganized,drawing “nostalgically on an imagined cultural authenticity from Hawaii's Pre-colonial surfing past.” Since the 1950s, the quintessential image of the surfing body has been “phenotypically White,” specifically, a young, white, male subject, slim, toned, tanned—but not dark skinned—with a mop of sun-bleached hair. Fuelled by the Hollywood beach movies, and the surf music craze epitomized by the Beach Boys,in the United States the white, blonde surfer became so iconic he—and increasingly she—became the face of California. As Walker details in Waves of 2 Resistance this Colonial appropriation has not been without resistance in Hawai’i . Yet this particular image of surfing has subsequently been perpetuated more globally in both the surfing niche media and through wider mass media surfing discourses. Thus, although surfing’s imagery as a white, male, youthful, privileged activity and space is a relatively recent and contextually specific social construction, globally it has been, and remains the hegemonic one. 
My focus in this chapter is the experiences of surfers who do not fit this hegemonic ideal—specifically, those racialized as nonwhite. Surfing participants often claim—indeed believe—that surfing culture is inclusive of all,and that race and gender don’t matter. However, despite a desire for an inclusive and cosmopolitan citizenship, as I illustrate, surf culture and the surfing media continue to perpetuate what Chivers-Yochim terms an “imagined community” of whiteness. This chapter draws on a research project that explored the formative and contemporary experiences of minority ethnic surfers, predominantly African Americans, who lived and surfed around Los Angeles, California. I explore how these black surfers negotiate space and identity in the surfing culture, and their experiences of belonging and exclusion. 
First, I situate the case study within a broader understanding of sport, whiteness, and exclusion, highlighting research that reveals surfing in the United States and beyond as a gendered and racialized space. I also consider the central and problematic roles that surfing media and industry play in developing our sporting imagination. I then turn to the contradictory experiences of belonging of the black surfers in my case study, identifying some of the difficulties and barriers experienced by these surfers carving a space in a white-dominated cultural practice. While some aspects of their experiences and identities were shared with white and other ethnic-minority surfers, what was most revealing was the range of difficulties or constraints that many of these surfers had faced and which they saw as barriers to other African Americans becoming surfers.

year: 2017

title: Obituary – Allan Edward Hewitt. In memory of Dr Allan Edward Hewitt - a multi-talented soil scientist

authors: Aislabie, J

subjects: obituary

abstract: Allan is remembered fondly by his colleagues in soil science throughout New Zealand and his Manaaki Whenua co-workers especially those in our Dunedin and Lincoln offices.

text: Obituary – Allan Edward Hewitt. In memory of Dr Allan Edward Hewitt - a multi-talented soil scientist Allan is remembered fondly by his colleagues in soil science throughout New Zealand and his Manaaki Whenua co-workers especially those in our Dunedin and Lincoln offices.

year: 2022-05-18

title: Joe Gillayley: A model of cultural hybridity in Keri Hulme’s novel The Bone People

authors: Cozma, Codrina

subjects: Literary analysis

abstract: Born and raised at the confluence of two cultures, Western and Māori, the New Zealand author Keri Hulme crafts in her 1983 novel, The Bone People, a vigorous literary discourse whose integrity and realism often topple consecrated stereotyping colonial theories. Joe Gillayley displays complex mechanisms of cultural hybridity in major areas of his private and social life. His initially ambivalent attitude towards both his Western and his Māori heritage are evident in his personal, social and economic life - in his interactions with his family, his semi-adopted son Simon/ Himi, his friend Kerewin, his work, school authorities, and tribal figures such as the mysterious prophet Tiaki Mira. Post-colonial scholarship provides the context in which the analysis provided here is conducted, an analysis that highlights the futility of colonial theories that are based on distorted, stereotypical images of both Western and indigenous life and values.

text: Joe Gillayley: A model of cultural hybridity in Keri Hulme’s novel The Bone People Born and raised at the confluence of two cultures, Western and Māori, the New Zealand author Keri Hulme crafts in her 1983 novel, The Bone People, a vigorous literary discourse whose integrity and realism often topple consecrated stereotyping colonial theories. Joe Gillayley displays complex mechanisms of cultural hybridity in major areas of his private and social life. His initially ambivalent attitude towards both his Western and his Māori heritage are evident in his personal, social and economic life - in his interactions with his family, his semi-adopted son Simon/ Himi, his friend Kerewin, his work, school authorities, and tribal figures such as the mysterious prophet Tiaki Mira. Post-colonial scholarship provides the context in which the analysis provided here is conducted, an analysis that highlights the futility of colonial theories that are based on distorted, stereotypical images of both Western and indigenous life and values.

year: 2004-02