ABSTRACT
This chapter explores Maori participation in the overlapping local and transnational networks of anthropology, activism and 'native' policy through the prism of Te Rangihiroa's scientific research and writing, and his anthropological and activist networks. It has hopefully worked to explicate how limiting such frameworks are. According to newspaper reports, Te Rangihiroa argued that in future the Maoris would be absorbed into the New Zealand race. Te Rangihiroa was attracted to S. Percy Smith's theory in part because it portrayed Maori as great navigators, and he extended on Smith's work through examining more closely migrations across Polynesia and the Pacific, drawing in large part on local 'myths' from this region. The transnational networks of anthropology and related racial sciences are a particularly unlikely space to seek or find an Indigenous presence. Anthropology has most commonly been viewed as a site of colonial and racial domination, rather than a vehicle of resistance or opportunity for Indigenous peoples.
