Tangata O Te Moana Nui: The Evolving Identities of Pacific Peoples in Aotearoa/New Zealand

by Cluny Macpherson

The increasingly visible Pacific population is now a permanent and growing element of New Zealand society. Since the mid nineteenth century, some 202,000 people of Pacific descent have made Aotearoa their home. This collection looks at the ways in which Pacific peoples see and identify themselves, at the forces which are changing these ways, the processes of change, and the ways in which the transformations are reflected in various social contexts in this country. While this book is primarily about the evolution and emergence of new forms of identity and community within these Pacific populations, it also examines some of the contributions which these communities are making to the emerging post-colonial institutions, values and practices of Aotearoa/New Zealand. As scholars reflect on the increasingly fluid and dynamic nature of ethnicity and ethnic identity in the twenty-first century, there is a need for texts which focus on these processes within the local context with which many of our students are engaged.

Paperback

Published June 6, 2001