Pākehā- Māori: European-Native. Ethnic Labeling in the Dorothy Neal White Collection

ABSTRACT

The use of labels for the Indigenous and non-Indigenous, the colonized and the colonizer, who in contemporary New Zealand society are known as Māori and Pākehā, is examined through the lens of postcolonial theory (Bradford 2007) in a set of 54 books. These books were selected from the Dorothy Neal White Collection, a collection of over 7000 English language children’s books published before 1940 and housed in the National Library of New Zealand. Findings show that the labels Māori and Pākehā (albeit with inconsistent capitalization and italicization) are used in the majority of the books. The use of Māori, Pākehā, New Zealander, white, and native are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethnic labels
• postcolonial
• children’s literature
• New Zealand
• Māori, Pākehā
• New Zealander
• Natives
• Whites

Acknowledgment

I would like to thank Mary Skarrot, Research Librarian, Children’s Literature at the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, who provided much support in locating and making available the books for this study.

Funding

I would like to acknowledge the Friends of the Dorothy Neal White Collection who provided a scholarship to fund this research.

Notes

¹ Note that books later than 1940 have been added to the collection as they have been donated.

² The origin of the authors was determined by researching each author’s name on the internet. In many cases their place of birth and/or upbringing was specifically stated; in five cases it could not be determined.

Additional information

Funding

I would like to acknowledge the Friends of the Dorothy Neal White Collection who provided a scholarship to fund this research.