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Social scientists attached to the Centre for Applied Cross Cultural Research at Victoria University of Wellington examine issues of New Zealand identity.

This article draws on the personal experiences and state documentation of Stan Coster (Ngāti Kahungungu) whose life has been characterised by different forms of state confinement, including over 25 years in prison serving both short and long lags. Through the use of the Official Information Act, Stan recovered state documentation on himself spanning over 40 years. Stan is not a research participant, but a full research collaborator and is engaged in all elements of this paper, so while not a writer he is both auteur and author of this piece. Stan’s story is his own and yet many of its features speak to a much broader collective experience. His prison identity and gang identity can be seen as being both informed and generated by state sponsored activity. By traversing the issues that pertain to the crisis of mass imprisonment, Māori disproportionality in the prison system, the contribution of the state to prison, and gang identity, we look at the possibilities of drawing on knowledge acquired under conditions of state constraint.  

The ways in which we understand bodies and fatness are complex. While coloniality unduly influences and shapes normative meanings of the body in everyday contexts, Maori conceptualisations of the body and of fatness remain inscribed within the moana, the whenua, te reo Maori and our whakapapa. These understandings provide insight into fatness and bodies from a Maori worldview. Our whakaaro in this article speaks into Maori ways of being and knowing, including meanings of momonatanga as bountiful, rich, fertile, and powerful. This article develops an expansive and holistic Maori understanding of bodies and fatness from the whenua, from the moana, from our whakapapa.

This chapter examines settler colonial crime control and its impacts on Indigenous women. High rates of victimisation and high levels of over-policing and over-incarceration mark Indigenous people’s experience of settler colonialism. This chapter explores the historical and contemporary conditions of colonialism through a gender lens, exploring in particular the impact of prison on Indigenous women’s lives. The chapter is based on an interview with and subsequent written notes by Professor McIntosh in 2020 discussing women, incarceration and settler colonial control in the Aotearoa New Zealand setting.

The 47-item Multidimensional Model of Māori Identity and Cultural Engagement (MMM-ICE; Houkamau & Sibley, 2010) is a hierarchically organised self-report (Likert-type) instrument designed to assess 6 distinct dimensions of identity and cultural engagement in Māori populations. Scale content was developed based on a detailed review of qualitative and quantitative literature on Māori identity and related constructs, and was extensively pilot tested with Māori from various backgrounds. The 6 dimensions assessed by the MMM-ICE are: (1) Group Membership Evaluation, (2) Socio-Political Consciousness, (3) Cultural Efficacy and Active Identity Engagement, (4) Spirituality, (5) Interdependent Self-Concept, and (6) Authenticity Beliefs. These dimensions are subsumed under more general or abstracted factors representing (at the third-tier level of analysis): (1) Self-Identification and Cultural Engagement in Socio-Political Context, (2) Enculturated Experiences of Māori Identity Traditions, and (3) Constitutive Representations of “Being” Māori. Exploratory Factor Analysis of people who self-identified as Māori and/or had ancestors who were Māori provided good support for the proposed factorial structure. All subscales had acceptable internal reliability with Cronbach's alphas ranging from .65 to .88. Convergent, discriminant, and construct validities were also supported.

Māori are the indigenous peoples of New Zealand and are culturally and ethnically diverse. Previous research suggests that Māori who identify jointly as European (New Zealand's dominant group) may have improved employment outcomes, income and levels of education relative to those who identify solely as Māori. However, research exploring the broader constellation of factors linked to multiple versus sole-ethnic affiliation for Māori remains scarce. We examine differences in outcomes for Māori depending upon their single versus multiple ethnic affiliation as Māori, Māori/European, or European (but with Māori ancestry) in a national probability sample (N=1416). Results indicated that people who identified jointly at Māori/European expressed political attitudes more aligned with Europeans. However, while Māori/Europeans may be more aligned with other Europeans in terms of support for mainstream political parties and intergroup attitudes, they remained lower on various indicators of social and economic status. In this latter regard, Māori/Europeans reported outcomes more similar to their sole-Māori counterparts.

Political struggles are important to the identities of many indigenous peoples. This article examines identity as a predictor of crucial political outcomes—voter turnout, support for protest, and political party support—for Māori, the indigenous peoples of Aotearoa (New Zealand). We analyzed data from a national probability sample of Māori (N = 663) that included a scale of subjective identification with various aspects of Māori identity: the Multidimensional Model of Māori Identity and Cultural Engagement. Use of the scale allowed us to examine the facets of ethnic identity that predict political mobilization for indigenous peoples. As expected, the identity domain relating to political struggle, Socio-Political Consciousness, was positively associated with support for left-wing parties and Māori rights protest but negatively associated with support for the right-wing party. However, Socio-Political Consciousness did not relate to voter turnout. These results demonstrate the importance of ethnic identity as a key predictor of political behaviors for indigenous peoples.

This chapter considers the link between ethnicity and economic wellbeing for the Māori of New Zealand. In the context of 175 years of colonization, identity and culture remain an important determinant of Māori people’s economic wellbeing. Drawing from diverse strands of literature, the chapter considers the relationship between identity, culture and economic practices for Māori. Empirical research related to Māori identity and economic preferences will be discussed, including a discussion of the link between cultural dimensions (collectivism/individualism) and Māori economic practices. Specific outcomes will be related to different sub-groups of Māori; including a discussion of the impacts of discrimination on Māori who are sole identifiers (i.e. two Māori parents) as opposed to mixed Māori/European. The positive impacts of enculturation for Māori subjective wellbeing will be outlined. Policy implications are also reviewed, particularly suggestions on how to develop appropriately tailored programmes which meet the cultural needs of Māori people.

Several writers have argued that New Zealand’s colonial history has thwarted optimal identity development among Māori (Awatere, 1984; Lawson Te-Aho, 1998a; 1998b). In recent decades the view that Māori identity may be restored via enculturation has gained widespread acceptance (Broughton, 1993; Edwards, 1999). Recent research indicates, however, that many Māori perceive their identities in ways that differ from the enculturated ideal (Borrell, 2005; Te Hoe Nuku Roa, 1996; 1999). Relatively little is known of the diverse interpretations that comprise ‘alternative’ Māori identity forms. This thesis aims to contribute to current understandings of Māori identity by exploring identity change across three generations of Māori women. For the purposes of the research, identity was treated as ‘held’ within personal life-stories and transformations were investigated by comparing the life-stories of 35 Māori women from different age groups. Attention was given to the impact of three socio-historical processes on identity: the mass migration of Māori from rural to urban locations after the 1950s, the drive towards Māori assimilation which underpinned Government policy towards Māori until the late 1960s, and the Māori political and cultural renaissance which gathered momentum in New Zealand from the 1970s. Data analyses found participants born prior to urbanisation evaluated their Māori identities positively and this seemed to reflect their isolation from Pākehā and exposure to competent Māori role models during their formative years. Participants aged between 35 and 49 expressed disharmony and tension around their Māori identities which many attributed to their early exposure to negative evaluations of Māori people. ‘Post-renaissance’ Māori, aged between 18 and 35, reported prizing their cultural distinctiveness from a young age and affirmed Māori political, cultural and social equality despite what they perceived as enduring Pākehā prejudice. This interpretation appeared to reflect their early exposure to educational experiences which imparted a sense of cultural pride and a national news media which publicised Māori political activism. Women’s life-stories reveal distinct intergenerational differences, a multiplicity of interpretations of Māori identity not widely articulated in literature, and the need to expand current paradigms of Māori identity to incorporate the individuality of group members.

Belonging and being are inextricably linked. From a Māori perspective, belonging and being can be viewed through a number of interconnected historical and contemporary frames. One frame is derived from Māori perceptions of the creation of the universe and genealogical relationships to the universe and everything in it. Another frame of belonging and being stresses increasingly diverse and complex positionings that require negotiation of radically different terrains of assumptions, behaviours, values and beliefs. This article explores two interrelated aspects of being and belonging from a Māori perspective: whakapapa (genealogical connections) and whanaungatanga (family relationships). It discusses how each aspect has changed over time as a result of colonisation, urbanisation and western education, and identifies how the reflection of each has been transformed.

History of Lettty Brown, advocate and member of groups such as the Womens Welfare League during urbanisation 1950s-1906s

Kaupapa Māori methodologies in Aotearoa New Zealand have often been applied to content of immediate and direct relevance to Māori communities. Some of these include research about aspects of cultural revitalisation or examinations of the position Māori occupy within broader ethnic disparities, particularly in health and social outcomes. This article seeks to expand the application of Kaupapa Māori paradigms to research topics outside 'te ao Māori' (the Māori world). We argue that the Kaupapa Māori theorising of a Māori visual arts and culture scholar can provide crucial insights on white privilege in Aotearoa New Zealand with a view to addressing disparities and creating more embracing and equitable perspectives of belonging, citizenship and nationhood.

This article examines why and how scholars should acknowledge and name each of the diverse political actors and institutions that typically are objectified as ‘indigenous peoples’ on the global stage, or ‘Māori’ in New Zealand. For instance, rather than suggesting a political relationship or conflict exists between ‘Māori and the Crown’, political scientists and theorists should name the political actors and political institutions for which Māori is a shorthand, for example, ‘Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu (the corporate entity of the Ngai Tahu whanui) and the Committee of Tuahiwi Marae disagreed with the Crown’. A variety of reasons are discussed as to why this objectification of Māori (and any other indigenous population) as a single political actor has occurred, the problems are pointed out, and a range of examples are given. Not every use of the terms ‘Māori’, ‘indigenous peoples’ or similar descriptors in political science stands in for a specific political actor (e.g. sometimes, it is suggesting a cleavage or a group at whom a policy is directed), but where scholars are describing or suggesting political action, they should be careful in their use of ethnic labels. I suggest that it would be more productive to study the specific contexts, intentions and actions of individuals and institutions that might consider indigeneity as being part of their identity.

As government policy settings have become more responsive to aspirations of Indigenous communities and researchers are more sensitive to the concerns of Indigenous communities, the research environment has become more conducive to understanding the cultural implications of genomic research. CELSI-us is a tongue-in-cheek reference to taking the temperature of the relationship between genomic researchers and Indigenous communities. If we create friction, then the temperature rises. But if we engage in a culturally responsive manner, then we take the heat out of the relationship and can focus on achieving mutually beneficial outcomes. This has been the focus of our work to date, and we hope that the guidelines we have produced make this challenging path easier for others to traverse.