Being Pākehā: white settler narratives of politics, identity, and belonging in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Abstract

Since the 1970s, Aotearoa/New Zealand has undergone wide-ranging social, political and cultural transformations both with respect to the politics of settler-indigenous relations and the ethnocultural diversification of the country’s population. Indigenous rights movements and the politics of biculturalism, as well as rapid increases in immigration from non-traditional source countries have disrupted deeply entrenched settler narratives that naturalised white settler colonialism and destabilised the dominant position of the white settler majority (Pākehā), forcing Pākehā to rearticulate identities and re-imagine the nation. This thesis investigates how Pākehā experience ‘being Pākehā’ today. Taking account of several decades of living with or growing up with biculturalism and increasing ethnic diversity, it explores how Pākehā construct and manage identity and their ‘social imaginaries’ (Taylor, 2002), that is, how they conceptualise their own position in society vis-à-vis both indigenous and migrant communities as well as the normative and ideological assumptions that guide their expectations. Life story interviews with 38 Auckland-based Pākehā form the empirical basis of this study. The biographical approach produced stories of lived experience, of memories, expectations and anticipations that allowed me to analyse how Pākehā negotiate majority group identity, and the role of wider discursive repertoires in enabling and constraining participant narratives. Guided by critical whiteness and settler colonial studies, the analysis primarily aims to reveal discursive practices that consolidate and/or challenge whiteness and settler colonial practices. The empirical data demonstrates that participants discursively construct post-colonial cosmopolitan identities, as expressed in stories of personal transformation, which highlight a new recognition of and engagement with Māori culture, as well as the normality of everyday multiculturalism. However, despite genuine intentions, such narratives often remain wedded to colonial, nationalist, and racialised assumptions and thereby serve to protect the majority’s normative and privileged position. Analysing in detail the politics of naming the majority group, the role of collective ‘living memory’ in perpetuating old myths and creating new ones, and visions of a multicultural future as prime sites of Pākehā identity construction, the thesis contributes to the international literature by providing a current and empirically based analysis of Pākehā identities and imaginaries that helps to deepen our understanding of the processes that secure white settler normativity and privilege in settler societies.