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  • This article discusses intergenerational transformations in personal identity for New Zealand's indigenous Māori and links these to macro-societal (political, economic and cultural) changes in New Zealand society. Data is drawn from the life stories of 35 Māori women aged 18 to 78. Women born prior to 1950 and raised in traditional Māori communities interpreted Māori identity as related to communal economics, resourcefulness and Māori spiritual beliefs. Those born after 1960, raised in urban (multi-cultural) communities struggled to form a positive sense of being Māori during their formative years and reported ‘dislocation’ from their Māori identities as adults. Those born after the 1970s expressed strong political views that reflected their early exposure to affirmative ideologies regarding Māori rights to equality. Marked differences in women's stories highlight the overarching influence of Māori identity politics at a collective level for personal interpretations of what it means to be Māori.

  • 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.

Last update from database: 10/23/26, 4:11 AM (UTC)