Why talk about being mixed-heritage?

Aotearoa New Zealand has become home to many different ethnic groups, and according to the census data from 2023, we are on the trajectory for increasing ethnic diversity. Consequently, we can only expect to see the presence of multi-ethnic populations grow. This isn’t to say however, that mixed-heritage people have not been present throughout New Zealand’s population evolution, as particularly around early colonial times, there was a preoccupation with mixed race Māori/Pākehā or ‘half-castes.’ Although mixed heritage people are now less anomalous than they were perhaps in 1843, there is still a clear lack of understanding and representation for this growing populous, as well as multi-ethnicity in Aotearoa more generally. One example of this is the New Zealand census ethnicity question, which has gone through several reiterations. Despite New Zealand being praised as one of the only countries that accepts ethnic self-identification in its census, the constant revision of the question’s wording has proved misleading as to whether a person can belong to one or multiple ethnic groups.

Now more than ever, Aotearoa New Zealand’s changing identity requires new understandings and further ethnic literacy. Not simply concerning data sets and categories, but concerning our communities, our mokopuna, the multiplicity that they carry.