Kiwi Identity

If there is one question important to consider for a class on the history and culture of New Zealand, then that question follows: what is New Zealand’s national “identity.”  It’s an interesting question because the very existence of such an identity cannot be assumed in the first place.  That is to say, such an identity functions as a kind of political myth whose type is very familiar to people from the United States, but I always wonder how common such myths are in other countries, and whether they are as prevalent in the popular consciousness as they are in America.

Now, to explain what I mean about national identity and political myths, let’s start by looking at the U.S. as an example.  I think of the U.S. as having a very strong political myth—“strong” referring to its power and historical relevance as a narrative—and most American’s have some fairly coherent idea of what this myth is.  It is a narrative that idealizes a rugged kind of individualism (think cowboys and frontiersman) and focuses on individual freedoms, like what our tour guide talked about during the walk through Aukland.  This myth features a reverence towards history and the founding fathers, and within the world-view perpetuated by this myth, America is placed as the center-piece and primary vanguard of the long history of western-styled democracy.  These ideas, along with an emphasis on Puritan work ethic, are more or less the components of the American political myth, out of which the American “identity” is born.  This myth is constantly reinforced, reproduced and exported as a kind of cultural meme through media, the government, et cetera, and because of this, it has gained global significance.

All of this is to say that American-ness is a broadly well-understood concept, and coming from this background, I’m interested to know how the concept of New Zealand-ness compares, or if such a concept exists at all.

And I can see reason to doubt the existence of a coherent New Zealand political myth.  As we talked about in class, it’s only a relatively recent phenomenon that the Pakeha New Zealanders started referring to New Zealand as their home country, rather than Great Britain.  In addition, I remember our Aukland tour guide lamenting how Kiwi’s didn’t care much about their own history and connected more with Britain’s, which is certainly different from how it is in the U.S..  But before I move on to discuss New Zealand’s political myth, I don’t think it’s necessarily a positive or a negative that a nation actually has one.  After all, these myths are essentially fictions, and important only in the cause of understanding how people’s political identities are formed.

But moving on, after staying here for while I can say with confidence that New Zealand certainly has its own political myth, and therefore there exists and distinct Kiwi identity.  This view was reinforced in Waiheke, where I met an older gentleman from Aukland who was touring the island.  As is common in this country, my talk with him came as a result of an aggressive and welcoming politeness on his part, as he immediately recognized us as a group of Americans and started telling us about the island.  What specifically interested me in our conversation was, when I asked him if he lived on the island, he said, “no, but I like to be someone who’s conscious of his country.”  I was surprised by his immediate self-identification with the land in an almost nationalistic sense.  It was clear that he had a lot of pride in his country, and specifically he seemed to identify his love for the land with that pride.  Referring to this, he went on to say, “you don’t have much of that in America anymore, do you?”  I wasn’t sure what he meant, but his statement inspired me to ask him what it means to be a New Zealander as opposed to an American.

To this, he immediately replied to the effect that the national identity of New Zealand is based on language and a connection to the land.  By “language,” he meant the Maori language, and he showed a clear respect for the country’s Maori heritage.  I found this interesting, because American patriotism seems very divorced from its own indigenous heritage.  And when he talked about a connection to the land, it was extremely reminiscent of Calder’s essay in the sense that this connection operates as a revered symbol of national identity.

So based on these two concepts: the Maori language and the symbolic connection between Man and “nature,” one can see the makings of a New Zealand political myth appearing in both written and anecdotal accounts.  What’s more, this myth seems to be understood broadly—like the American one—in the sense that everywhere you can find the Maori language in writing, and everywhere you can see a reverence for the natural world manifested as modern environmentalism.