Humour as indigenous liberation: A tattooed anus for world peace in Kisses in the Nederends

ABSTRACT

The novel Kisses in the Nederends, by the Tongan writer Epeli Hauʻofa, uses humour and a revised tātatau to reach an unusual new indigeneity. Moving past human fears and taboos is possible thanks to a tattooed anus, which leads from behind to create a non-violent revolution for world peace. Hauʻofa plays with the classic tātatau of Tonga – a sacred, full-body tattoo – reducing it to a single anal mark that expands exponentially to include Oceania and the planet. Countering views that see Pacific geography in terms of economic limitation and indigenous bodies as possessed or bound by logics of colonialism or capital, this particular indigenous anus saves the world. Hauʻofa emphasizes non-elite imagery and laughter to unleash the ongoing vitality of indigenous cultural expression, expanding into the world in ways that allow for signs, bodies, and indigeneities that are more than individual.

KEYWORDS:

• Pacific literature
• Oceania
• humour
• indigenous
• tattoo
• Epeli Hauʻofa

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. In a review of the film Moana, Hereniko critiques the long-standing Hollywood trope of sexually available Pacific women, just waiting for a white traveller/viewer, a view that relies implicitly upon asexual Pacific men (Hereniko 2018, 221).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Juniper Ellis

Juniper Ellis is professor of English at Loyola University Maryland, where she teaches courses including postcolonial literature, humour studies and banned books. She has published Tattooing the World: Pacific Designs in Print and Skin (2008), and articles in journals including Ariel, Arizona Quarterly and PMLA.