Race Purity in an Emerging Nation: Orientalism, Law, Policy, Immigration and Maori

This chapter begins with an introduction to Orientalism, followed by a discussion of late nineteenth century aspirations to racial purity in New Zealand. It analyses immigration law and constructions of Maori as Aryan as Orientalist discourses, highlighting the real world effects of these constructions. The chapter identifies a particularly New Zealand colonial legal Orientalism, shaped by nineteenth century social Darwinism and discourses of a nation emerging from colonial Britain and striving for modernism. One of the defining characteristics of Orientalism is the construction of Orientals with a static essentialism as a servile race. The chapter emphasises the vast time separating the parting of the Aryan race before the Great Migration. It considers Maori claims for autonomy and protests in response to colonial injustices as part of the dynamic in which Orientalist discourses were shaped and operated. The chapter focuses on colonial law and policy discourses in broader societal contexts.