He kohuka whakarereke: The Maori Renaissance and its impact on Aotearoa New Zealand's Pacific diplomacy
Abstract
In Aotearoa New Zealand, the relationship between the indigenous Maori and settler-descended Pakeha peoples is a cornerstone of its national identity. Like the origins of the state itself, this relationship is predominantly colonial, holding Maori - and Maori ways of being - in subjugation to Pakeha from at least the 1860s. Yet this coloniality has been actively challenged since the Maori Renaissance (Te Whakahaumanu) began in the early 1970s. As a movement of Maori social, cultural, and political revitalisation and reassertion, the Renaissance is a rejection of colonisation and a rebalancing of Maori relations with Pakeha and the state. As this balance has shifted, so too has New Zealand's national identity, affecting how it sees and represents itself both at home and abroad. While the domestic effects of this transformation have been widely studied, its impact on the state's foreign relations has until now been largely neglected.
Given New Zealand's deep colonial entanglement with the Pacific Islands in particular, this thesis examines how shifts in Maori-Pakeha relations since the beginning of the Maori Renaissance have later influenced New Zealand's diplomacy in the region. It applies a wave model to conceptualise the Renaissance as a cyclical process, where swells of heightened social tension leave identity malleable, making more substantial shifts possible. It also proposes identity decolonisation as a framework for both understanding and demonstrating the elasticity of colonially constituted elements of identity, especially when they are contested. In the process, this thesis studies two principal waves of the Maori Renaissance - from 1970-81 and from 1990-2007 - and follows the impact of each on intergroup relations, identity change, and, ultimately, Pacific diplomacy.
Three key findings emerge from this analytical and case-study driven approach. First, that Renaissance-inspired identity change has influenced New Zealand's Pacific diplomacy - albeit imperfectly. Second, it finds that the Maori Renaissance is an ongoing and cyclical process, occurring in distinct waves of tension and reckoning, rejecting the notion that it was a past event confined to history. Finally, this thesis identifies that identity decolonisation provides a valuable framework for understanding a form of decolonisation relevant to settler-colonial states in the 21st century. Together, these findings reinforce that diplomatic shifts since the 1970s are not solely the result of geopolitics or trade interests but are intertwined with New Zealand's internal reckoning with its colonial past and present. It also challenges the conventional view of New Zealand's diplomacy as identity neutral. In doing so, it reinforces that diplomacy is as much a reflection of a state's people and their relationships with each other as a product of government policies and interests.