Navigating Secularism: Pacific Communities, Intersectional Identities, and the New Zealand State

Pacific Islanders in Aotearoa New Zealand navigate an implicit but pervasive secularism when it comes to engaging with the state on issues of family violence. Through interviews with Pacific Islanders who have worked with the state to address family violence in Pacific Island communities, we trace the shadows cast by the state's secularity. We question the purported neutrality of the secular state, arguing that rather than creating a space for a growing multicultural national community, secularism in New Zealand is closely associated with, and is preferential to, whiteness. In this way, secularism evokes its own deep-seated assumptions and guiding ideas and establishes a particular worldview that shapes state engagements with New Zealand's Pacific communities. Given the overlap between ethnic and religious identities in Pacific communities, we argue that questions of secularism and religion are best approached not as stand-alone topics but as intersectional identities. This intersectional approach to the study of secularism helps to illuminate secular effects. In doing so, we show that secularism in New Zealand reduces the effectiveness of state family violence interventions, which in turn further marginalize Pacific Islanders, especially Pacific women.