Indigenous Identity Appropriation in Aotearoa New Zealand

The White Academics Who Claim to Be Indigenous Māori and the Māori Who Claim to Be Indigenous Whites

Bibliographic Data

ID13081663
AuthorsD Galbraith (0000-0001-5529-2571, University of Otago, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume8
Issue4
Pages129-129
Publication date2024-10-09
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGenealogy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2313-5778 • E-ISSN: 2313-5778
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/genealogy8040129
OpenAlexW4403242306
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited35

Unlike in North America, where several “race-shifters”, “Pretendians”, or “self-indigenizers” have been exposed over the last decade, Indigenous identity appropriation has not been publicly exposed or even widely discussed in Aotearoa New Zealand. This study is the first to identify and to describe the methods and motivations of four Pākehā (White) self-indigenizers who are currently working, or were trained, in Aotearoa New Zealand, outlining also the harms they have caused. In addition, this study examines another type of Indigenous identity appropriation taking place in Aotearoa New Zealand, involving a small group of central North Island Māori, whose primary spokesperson is Monica Matāmua. The group claim to be descended from white-skinned Hotu, who they purport had migrated to Aotearoa New Zealand in the 200s B.C., making them the alleged true Indigenous people instead of Māori. Each type of Indigenous identity appropriation provides a range of benefits to those who thereby claim Indigenous status, and this is in part due to the valorization of certain aspects of Indigeneity that occurred from ca. the 1960s to the 1980s. Indigenous identity appropriation has further been encouraged by the backlash against so-called “Māori privilege” that has gathered momentum since ca. the 1980s

Aesthetics · Aotearoa · Appropriation · Art · Ethnology · Identity (music · Indigenous · Linguistics · Political science · Sociology · White (mutation · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies · Philosophy