Conversations in the Diaspora: Navigating a Māori Identity when Geographically Displaced from Ancestral Homelands

Diaspora, the migration of people away from their homelands, is a contemporary experience of Indigenous communities. Of concern in Indigenous diaspora research is how one maintains cultural identity while living within exclusionary environments that have the lasting influence of settler-colonial assimilationist ideologies. This paper contributes to the growing conversation around the Indigenous diaspora by drawing on the narratives of three Māori individuals who have lived experience in the diaspora. Kōwetewete, an Indigenous qualitative research method, invited conversations from the diaspora into this paper. Participants provided insights concerning the complexity of identity assertion in the diaspora, themes of belonging and connection to tūrangawaewae (ancestral homeland), and diasporic relations to the homeland. This paper highlights the need for better recognition of Māori in the diaspora and argues that it is essential to decolonize place-based markers that continue to limit cultural-identity experiences.