ABSTRACT
This chapter compares the ways in which Canada, Australia and New Zealand have deployed cultural diversity to navigate the political and cultural consequences of post-War immigration, Indigenous activism and global shifts in ideas about race. All three states moved away from explicitly British, racially exclusive identities towards civic national identities that celebrate diversity, though each arrived there through distinct historical trajectories. External pressures – decolonization, global anti-racism norms and economic realignments – compelled these states to revise their self-understandings and promote inclusivity as a fundamental modern national value. Australia and Canada used multiculturalism to distance themselves from racist pasts and to advance economic and diplomatic goals, though Australia continued to struggle with anxieties about Asian immigration and cultural cohesion. Canada framed multiculturalism as part of a liberal individualist project, using it to contain Francophone nationalism while projecting a global image of successful diversity management. New Zealand, shaped by the centrality of Māori–settler relations, embedded biculturalism as the foundation for integrating wider diversity. Across the three countries, governments have appropriated Indigenous cultures to create a sense of historical belonging as well as anti-racism in their national identities. This provokes criticism that recognition masks ongoing colonial power relations, and is incompatible with Indigenous self-determination.
