Rethinking Identity in 21 st Century New Zealand

1. Rethinking Identity in 21st Century New Zealand Art in Context, October 18, 2007

2. Critical Theory Social Science is not simply descriptive It is aimed at Emancipation and Amelioration

3. Two culture in New Zealand Apparently in conflict However, we are an intermixed group – Māori and Non-Māori Socially Intermarriage

4. Can we truly say Them and Us? Or are we making false distinctions by talking about Them and Us in this way?

5. Colonization/Post-colonialism • Post colonial theory Third Space • Rethinking Identity and culture in New Zealand • Response – changing the discourse

6. Colonization • A time period • An attitude – and consequent actions

7. Time period • 1815 – European powers control 35% of the world’s surfaced • 1914 – they control 85% of the world’s surface

8. This situation exists until the end of the second World WarThis is the colonizing period

9. Post WW2 • India – 1947 • Kenya • The creation of the Middle Eastern countries • Fiji • Singapore

10. Post colonialism traces it’s beginning from the post WW2 period How to operate in a world freed of the influence of the colonizers

11. New Zealand • A near-unique situation as the colonizers are still here and never likely to leave

12. Can they still be described as colonizers? I believe they can

13. Leading members of the dominating culture act like they have the right to dominate Leading figures in New Zealand still do not accept Māori culture on its own terms and expect to be able to operate in Māori situations on the terms of the dominant culture

14. New Liberalism • Such as the Resource management Act Have reduced Māori to the status of a lobby group with the right to speak But whose views can still be discounted, as long as they have exercised their rights to speak.

15. So, New Zealand can only be described as post-colonial in terms of the time period In terms of the attitudes, and consequent actions, New Zealand is largely still a colonized country

16. I want to suggest that a colonizer is a person, or group, which acts according to a colonizing narrative Therefore, to change effect change, we have to change the discourse and we do that by changing the narratives which inform that discourse

17. Third Space Appears to offer a solution It looks to people to mediate between the two cultures – in this case Māori and Pākehā

18. B A C Narrative Narrative ?

19. No Narrative No set of “actions to be expected” People attempting to occupy the Third Space are forced into one or other major identity Are you Maori?

21. The Third Space is a continual field of dynamic social processes

22. The Third Space, therefore, remains a field in which identities conflict with each other, in which new identities arise, merge, and on and on.

23. The Third Space is a field of contestation and negotiation And Social Change

24. Identity How we behave towards each other

25. Identity is claimed And assigned

26. The claim is based on a narrative And a set of “Actions to be expected”

27. The assignee might not share the same narrative as the assigned The claimant might not share the same narrative as the audience

28. Without a shared narrative there is no consensus around a set of “actions to be expected” for any given identity

29. This disparity leads to the contestation, negotiation,dispute and conflict

30. Meeting procedurePeople who can not follow meeting procedure ie, do not know the set of “actions to be expected”Are regarded as “dangerously outspoken”

31. The totalizing effects of the dominant myth narratives

32. SaidOrientalism Traces the creation of two identites Orientalist – a person who studies Orientals

33. Orientals People who live in the Orient A disputed Identity – not accepted by the people to whom it has been assigned

34. The set of “actions to be expected” of “orientals” justifies the colonization because “orientals” need “British Government” the myth-narrative/ action link

35. New Zealand’s narratives Pākehā

36. Moriori Māori Captain Cook The Treaty of Waitangi

37. The set of “actions to be expected” of Māori justifies the colonization because Māori need “British Government”

38. Letter to the editorMaori the conquerors?So the Moriori are an existing race that predates Maori, and now they have a marae. That raises some interesting questions.Should they sue Maori in current courts for eating them?Does this mean that all of the claims Maori have made as tangata whenua are fraudulent claims?Being tauiwi, I do not understand.If Maori defeated these people and chased them to the Chathams, doesn’t this mean that although Mari predate the European, they can no longer claim to be people of the land, but rather, are conquerors of another race?Cliff Wall(Waikato Times, 26/01/2005 p6)

39. European Settlement Hard-working settlers cleared the land and established “New Zealand” Gallipoli “The price of Nationhood” Oh, By the way, we are proud Maori where there too

40. Modern New Zealand Mainstream New Zealand

41. National Party Leader Don Brash Māori are not Mainstream New Zealanders Helen Clarke’s supporters are not Mainstream New Zealanders

42. This narrative is exclusive It creates an “Us” and a “Them”

43. Māori Narratives

44. Māori narratives are Inclusive

45. Contestation over narratives

46. Revision of New Zealand’s historic narrative James Belich Anne Salmond

47. The Third Space is not a concept confined to post-colonial discourse. It is a space of social contestation, of negotiation, dispute And ultimately it is a space of cntinuous social

48. Therefore, it is a useful tool to analyse and discuss current cross-cultural interactions However, it does not offer the longer term solutions as the Third Space will only remain a field of dispute

49. Different answer for New Zealand?

50. Rethinking Identity and culture in New Zealand