ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses how New Zealand has used Indigenous Māori culture – and later, polyethnic diversity – to construct and promote national identity. Māori cultural practices have long been central to national symbolism, celebrated both domestically and internationally, though often in ways that commercialize or appropriate these practices for state or marketing purposes. From the late 19th to early 20th centuries, colonial New Zealander enthusiasm for Māori culture coexisted with policies of assimilation and with racial exclusion of Asian migrants. Māori symbols were widely adopted to differentiate New Zealand within the British Empire, even as Māori political autonomy was suppressed. A major shift occurred from the 1980s. Economic restructuring, the revival of the Treaty of Waitangi, and Māori activism led to formal recognition of Māori rights and the development of biculturalism as a guiding principle in public institutions. Biculturalism introduced Māori language, values, and ceremonies into state practice, although these have been used to supply state needs under neoliberalism other than Māori self-determination. From the 1990s, liberalized immigration expanded New Zealand’s ethnic diversity, prompting governments to frame multicultural inclusion as a social and economic asset. Diversity became integral to national branding – reinforcing an image of a tolerant, modern nation engaged in global markets.
