A Suitable Time and Place

Following the approaches of discourse analysis and social contructionism, talk about New Zealand/Aotearoa is analysed to show how constructions of time become a discursive resource in speakers' identity work and also in larger contests around nation and belonging. Time and place constructions become interlinked within a personal narrative as consecutive life-stages corresponding to different places of residence. An absent time-place is reified as a valued possession, to be protected from others. In contests around the status of the Maori minority, the constructions of time within alternative narratives establish or challenge the status of indigeneity.