Love and politics: Rethinking biculturalism and multiculturalism in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Abstract

Biculturalism and multiculturalism are often conceptualized as antagonistic, incompatible and competing frameworks in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Consequently, a formal policy of multiculturalism remains absent while the state operates an official policy of biculturalism predicated on the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi between Indigenous Māori and the British Crown. This chapter makes a case for the simultaneous pursuit and co-existence of biculturalism and multiculturalism in Aotearoa/New Zealand. I begin by tracing some debates that frame contesting bicultural and multicultural positions. I then offer a philosophical response to the ethical-political dilemmas posed by such debates, reflecting on the complexities of my own position as an Aotearoa/New Zealand-born Chinese-Thai within a bicultural national framework. I do not outline a prescription for simply harmonious bicultural and multicultural relations. Instead my response entails a leap of faith from the familiar to the discomforts of a more partial, contested and uncertain territory that lies beyond the horizon.