Paper short abstract:

Visitors to New Zealand's sub-Antarctic islands engage in managed opportunities to perform personal narratives of wild nature. Videotaped examples of such performances are presented and analysed with respect to problematic narrative tensions between individual performances and the prescribed or public narrative.

Paper long abstract:

Shelton & Tucker (2007) presented various narratives available to be used in describing the environmental status of Aotearoa/New Zealand, and the place of Polynesian and European Homo sapiens within or outside these. The narratives comprised despoliation, indigenous, wise use, and restoration. The sub-Antarctic islands of New Zealand are managed according to a restoration narrative. Within this narrative only six hundred visitors per year are allowed to land on the islands, and in some places only one hundred and fifty. In preparation for landing, visitors are presented with a 'public narrative' of how the islands may be experienced, supported by a well-illustrated book of the area. Once ashore, visitors perform their individual narratives of wild nature. Back on board, the public narrative is repeated and reinforced. This presentation utilises video of such narrative performances during two expedition cruises and explores the tensions inherent in applying a singular narrative to phenomena with multiple available meanings.