Full bibliography

This brief paper questions the nature of biculturalism that has developed in Aotearoa/New Zealand, namely that contested around a dualistic and antagonistic politics of either Maori or Pakeha. This paper joins a growing call for a reconceptualisation of bicultural politics in Aotearoa/New Zealand that draws on an inclusionary and multifaceted identity politics (Reilly, 1996; McClean, 1997; Spoonley, 1997). What is required is a revised approach that accounts for Maori/Pakeha relations where there are multiple subject-positions, affinities and differences continually at play through ongoing interaction and exchange. The paper argues the need for this conceptualisation to take place in an alternative space that blurs the limitations of boundaries and engenders new possibilities. I examine Homi Bhabha's notions of hybridity and the third space. I offer some introductory comment as to what these concepts might offer for a project concerned with the redesign of laws and institutions for a bicultural Aotearoa/New Zealand.