Hybrid identities: Maori Italians challenging racism and the Maori/Pakeha binary

New Zealand’s indigenous Māori were colonized by British settlers (now called Pākehā). Scant systematic investigation addresses bicultural/biracial identity for Māori who identify with further ethnic groups other than Pākehā. Taking a narrative approach and applying thematic analysis, this paper explores interviews with forty-four Māori-Italians, a cohort seldom sampled, conducted in New Zealand in 2013. We show how Māori-Italians negotiate the challenge of constructing positive ethnic identities in a milieu where historically ethnic hybridity has been defined primarily in relation to the Māori/Pākehā colonial encounter. Focusing on racism and stigma, we demonstrate that Māori-Italians run a gauntlet of identity challenges shaped by socio-political contexts. Conversely, Māori-Italians draw from both Māori and Italian identities to buffer discrimination from Māori, Pākehā, and Italians. Our analysis reveals a multiplicity of interpretations of Māori-Italian identity not widely articulated in social psychology or New Zealand literature, and shows the need to expand paradigms of Māori identity to incorporate ethnic hybridity beyond the Māori/Pākehā binary.