Pavlova and pineapple pie: Selected identity influences on Samoan‐Pakeha people in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Abstract

This paper examines influences on the increasing numbers of those with one Pakeha parent and one Samoan parent in Aotearoa/New Zealand. It is based on a small, qualitative study and utilises a narrative approach. It describes selected influences at macro, meso, and micro levels of social structure as a framework for examining how this population view themselves and construct their identities. At the macro level, post‐colonial dynamics of requiring “authenticity” from minority groups is explored, as it demands high standards of legitimacy from those of both Samoan and Pakeha ancestry. Essentialist and one drop rule theories of ethnic identity tend to classify this population as belonging solely to the Samoan category. At the meso level, these people as children are uncritically treated as if they are only Samoan. At the micro level, the influences of their nuclear and extended families tended to encourage a Samoan identity in most participants. There was a marked variation in the ways the participants interpreted their lives, despite some similarities of experience.