For many people who share multiple ethnic identities, it can be confusing straddling the border lands of different cultures and understanding where you belong.
The number of people who identify as having multiple ethnicities is increasing, both in New Zealand and internationally. Data from the 2013 New Zealand Census shows that 22.8 per cent of children (aged between 0 and 14 years) identified with more than one ethnic group, as did 53.5 per cent of Māori and 37.2 per cent of Pacific peoples.
In this episode of NZ Herald podcast The Māori in Me, host Myjanne Jensen speaks to two wāhine about their experience navigating being Māori and other ethnicities.
Dr Tess Moeke-Maxwell identifies as Māori-Pākehā-other, with Ngai Tai and Ngāti Porou whakapapa.
Moeke-Maxwell is a senior research fellow at Auckland University’s School of Nursing and has dedicated her working life to helping Māori, from sexual abuse counselling to assisting whānau with her end-of-life research.
Another one of her research passions is Māori ethnic diversity, which she wrote about in her PhD thesis, ‘Bringing Home the Body: Bi/Multi Racial Māori Women’s Hybridity in Aotearoa/New Zealand’.
Moeke-Maxwell says she wanted to write about this topic because of her own experience growing up navigating the space between Māori and Pākehā worlds.
“I started to notice my mother being described as ‘a Māori woman’ and that was really the first time I realised this meant she was different in some way to the Pākehā mothers where we lived,” Moeke-Maxwell said.
“I myself am fair-skinned, with hazel eyes and I was born with ‘waka-blonde’ hair, so looking at me you couldn’t locate me as Māori.
“So I knew from a young age that I didn’t really fit anywhere- I wasn’t Māori ‘enough’, nor was I Pākehā ‘enough’ either.
“But if I could choose, my heart aligned more with being Māori.”
Dr Tess Moeke-Maxwell identifies as Māori-Pākehā-other, with Ngai Tai and Ngāti Porou whakapapa. Photo / Supplied
Danish-Māori-Australian woman, Mikkeline Olsen (Ngati Raukawa ki te Tonga/Ngāti Toa Rangatira/Kāi Tahu) grew up in Brisbane and says she had a similar experience having a Danish father and Māori-Pākehā mother.
She says living in Australia made things more complicated, as she never quite felt Danish or Māori ‘enough’, despite her best efforts to connect to those parts of her.
“I feel like neither of my parents held a strong identity either way….so I thought, ‘Where do I come from? I’m not Australian, but I live here….and what does that even mean anyway?” Olsen said.
“I now try not to say I’m half anything because that’s a very colonising viewpoint to put a blood quantum percentage on people and that’s not something I want to practice because it’s reinforcing that I’m only ‘half’.
“So I usually say, I’m Danish and I’m Māori and I live in Australia…I don’t think our ancestors would have done that [put a percentage on blood].
“They would have said, if the blood is there and the spirit is within you, you are that.”
Listen to the full episode to hear more from Dr Tess and Mikkeline.
