A “Harmony of Frenzy”: Māori in Manhattan, 1909–10

This essay examines the “Maoris of Manhattan”—forty performers from New Zealand who imagined a race and place virtually unknown to North Americans on the world’s largest stage, the New York Hippodrome. The confluence of politics, race, and gender come to the fore in this examination of contemporary expressions of popular entertainment, highlighting how performance and public discourse of Māori led to new representations of New Zealand and contributed in developments in corporeal cultural hybridity. The performers challenged Americans’ understandings of both Māori and Indigenous people with their stylish dress and manners and support of women’s rights.