Racism and Empire: discourses of race and Empire in the formation of New Zealand's national identity 1894-1907

Abstract

National identity is extremely difficult to define. Stephanie Taylor states that 'academic theorists and politicians have variously defined a nation as a distinctive group of people linked by kinship; or by shared culture, including language and religion; or by common history and occupation of the same piece of territory or by shared interests.'Taylor, 1996, p.47. Keith Sinclair notes that 'what a nation actually is has always been a puzzle. It is not a race, with identifiable physical characteristics, such as skin colour, though many people have thought so. In a very low-powered definition it is a group of people many or most of whom think that they are a nation.' Sinclair, 1986, p.3. Yet, like national identity itself, defining a nation is a tricky business. As Sinclair points out 'Holding up a nation for scrutiny is like picking up a jelly-fish.' ibid. Identity, especially as it attaches to such a nebulous term as 'nation', is also extremely difficult to define. Sinclair attempts a definition, saying that: