Dilemmas of Settler Belonging: Roots, Routes and Redemption in New Zealand National Identity Claims

Abstract

This paper explores the identity markers and rules used in the process of national identity construction by young adult New Zealanders, drawing on empirical data from qualitative interviews with members of the majority culture of 'Pakeha' or 'European' New Zealanders. While these young New Zealanders draw on the markers of 'birth', 'blood' and 'belonging' identified in other studies, their claims to identity and belonging are troubled by the settler origins of their ancestors. The dilemmas these origins create for these young New Zealanders are identified along with the strategies they deploy as they seek to resolve them. The existence of these dilemmas suggests that a distinct identity rule is at work for this group that has not previously been identified in earlier studies. Thus, this analysis provides further evidence for the deployment of a common set of markers and rules as well as highlighting some of the ways in which these differ in different national contexts.In any society the dominant national culture is typically unproblematically 'at home'. The nation is first of all theirs and their belonging unquestionable. Within the New Zealand context however, the dominant national culture has settler -migrant and colonizing -origins. Their occupation of the homeland is then not so straightforwardly secured. Others were there before them. As settlers, they claim a national identity, but as Richard Handler (1990: 8) has expressed it, they are 'not the natives of choice' and remain plagued by an 'ontological unease' (Bell, 2006: 254). There is now an extensive literature on the difficulties of the contemporary white settler identities that have developed in the former British colonies of New Zealand, Australia, Canada and South Africa. 2 This literature is primarily based on historical and representational analyses -with anthropology (for example Lattas, 1990;Wolfe, 1994), museum studies (for example, Coombes, 2006) and literary criticism (for example, Goldie, 1989;Hodge and Mishra, 1991;Collingwood-Whittick, 2007) predominating. There has been little sociological analysis of settler identities (although see Stasiulis and Yuval Davis, 1995) and even less based on the empirical data provided by interview research. The primary question behind

‘It's not really us discriminating against immigrants, it's more telling people how to fit in’: Constructing the nation in immigration talk in New Zealand

“…Maori issues have become prominent politically with calls for self‐determination and redress for injustices. In response, and since the 1980s, ‘the New Zealand state has officially espoused a bicultural nationhood in which Maori and Pakeha are both ‘founding peoples’ of the nation whose origins are deemed to lie in the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi’ (Bell, 2009, p.148).…”

“…In contrast, Bell argues that for the ‘settler’ population, identities are constructed in relation to ‘two primary others, the peoples of the metropolitan homelands of their ancestors and the indigenous peoples of their national homeland’ (Bell, 2009, p.147). Bell's research demonstrates that a weak claim to place and a relative lack of belonging are bound up with constructions of national identity for today's young adults.…”

“…In New Zealand (NZ), changes in immigration policy have seen a rapid increase in diverse groups of migrants with varied cultural backgrounds entering the country in the past two decades. Given its unique colonial history and ‘settler nationality in a bicultural nation’ (Bell, 2009), we explored how young NZ adults talk about and produce meanings and understandings of immigration, immigrants and cultural diversity. Appealing to notions of NZ as ‘one society’, as English speaking, and as English looking participants constructed NZ, NZ national identity and the NZ economy in particular ways.…”

‘There are times when I feel like a bit of an alien’: middling migrants and the national order of things

“…While Smith has argued that studies of middling migration must also attend to local structures, including those associated with the nation‐state, scholars of nationalism have paid relatively little attention to the phenomenon. A notable exception is Pearson (, ), who is also one of the few people to have carried out research on UK migrants living in Australia and New Zealand (see also Bell ; Fraser and McCarthy ; McGlynn et al ). Pearson not only notes the shifting regional and national allegiances that such migrants articulate in response to different contexts and prompts but also how a position of relative power, as someone from a White, Western background, can be undermined by a lack of ‘vernacular cultural credentials’ (Pearson : 517, see also Bell ) at particular moments.…”

“…A notable exception is Pearson (, ), who is also one of the few people to have carried out research on UK migrants living in Australia and New Zealand (see also Bell ; Fraser and McCarthy ; McGlynn et al ). Pearson not only notes the shifting regional and national allegiances that such migrants articulate in response to different contexts and prompts but also how a position of relative power, as someone from a White, Western background, can be undermined by a lack of ‘vernacular cultural credentials’ (Pearson : 517, see also Bell ) at particular moments. This is a point that will be picked up in the analyses of my own empirical materials, but in the next section, I want to outline how these materials were generated and analysed.…”