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Thread ID: 96499	2009-01-12 08:41:00	Ethnic Origin	andrew93 (249)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
737986	2009-01-12 08:41:00	Posting in another thread tonight got me thinking.....at what point should/would 'New Zealander' be considered an ethnic group? Or should that be 'Kiwi'? Why isn't one of the first two options (when filling out official forms) for ethnic origin not 'New Zealander'? How come we readily accept (without question) Irish, Maori, Chinese, European, Samoan etc as an indicator of ethnicity, but not New Zealander? What is the official criteria for recognition of an ethnic group? And who appointed said 'experts' as the judges of ethnic groups anyway? Personally I call myself a Kiwi and on official forms I flip flop between New Zealander and Celtic (which is the fastest growing ethnic groups in NZ). I don't having any feelings of belonging to the birth-countries of my distant ancestors so why should I continue to associate myself with those countries when I am a 6th/7th generation Kiwi? I'm curious to hear others opinions. Is this piss in the wind? Is ethnicity not important to you? Do you already put 'New Zealander' as your ethnic origin? Or something else? Happy to hear your thoughts..... Andrew	andrew93 (249)
737987	2009-01-12 09:12:00	Ah So! Me So Sah-Lee! Due rike ah flied lice?	bob_doe_nz (92)
737988	2009-01-12 09:18:00	Nice one Bob.......I had a Vietnamese meal for lunch today - very tasty! I hope you don't mind my asking but you consider yourself a Kiwi don't you? I have a couple of long-standing Asian friends (Vietnamese and Chinese), both of whom consider themselves 100% Kiwis. Other friends often take a 2nd look to hear them speak with a Kiwi twang.....their parents may not have been born in NZ but they were and as far as they are concerned they are Kiwis.....	andrew93 (249)
737989	2009-01-12 09:25:00	Nice one Bob.......I had a Vietnamese meal for lunch today - very tasty! I hope you don't mind my asking but you consider yourself a Kiwi don't you? I have a couple of long-standing Asian friends (Vietnamese and Chinese), both of whom consider themselves 100% Kiwis. Other friends often take a 2nd look to hear them speak with a Kiwi twang.....their parents may not have been born in NZ but they were and as far as they are concerned they are Kiwis..... I consider myself a banana! Yellow on the outside. White on the inside.	bob_doe_nz (92)
737990	2009-01-12 09:28:00	I don't really care about ethnic origin. But of course when the paper says I need to pick one, I pick Chinese though I was born somewhere else. I don't know what to consider myself.....I've never really had a cultural identity. Sort of at a lost when deciding what I am culturally. Chinese blooded, but living in two foreign lifestyles with a lot of Chinese aspects to it.	qazwsxokmijn (102)
737991	2009-01-12 09:39:00	Good on you Bob! :) @ qazwsxokmijn : I agree in that I don't really care about it, except for when I am asked for it!! To me it seems so unnecessary to ask - what difference does it make? None! That's why I always tick 'other' and put something that isn't actually an ethnic origin in their eyes. But I think it the question still stands as to why isn't Kiwi/NZer an ethnic origin?	andrew93 (249)
737992	2009-01-12 10:05:00	Posting in another thread tonight got me thinking.....at what point should/would 'New Zealander' be considered an ethnic group? Or should that be 'Kiwi'? (snip) I think "New Zealander" is a nationality rather than an ethnic origin. I guess in America people are American on their passports etc, but their ethnic origin is (pick one of dozens). If you saw the doco on TVOne last night, you would have seen people referred to as "Indo-Fijians" - Fijian being the nationality but Indian (originating in some part of mainland India) being the ethnic origin. In NZ I suspect that a large number of Māori see themselves as Māori first, (their ethnic origin) and New Zealander second. Maybe they even see themselves as (say) Tuhoe first, Māori second, and New Zealander to get a passport! As far as I am concerned as a 5th gen NZer, I consider myself to be a Pākehā of Celtic origin when it comes to ethnicity, but seeing I know stuff all about my Celtic roots other than a genealogy back to the 17th century, Pākehā makes more sense. Unfortunately the gutless wonders in the Statistics Dept refuse to put Pākehā in the census.	John H (8)
737993	2009-01-12 10:08:00	Here is the gutless wonders' definition of ethicity (from the stats.govt.nz website): Ethnicity/Ethnic group Ethnicity is the ethnic group or groups that people identify with or feel they belong to. Ethnicity is a measure of cultural affiliation, as opposed to race, ancestry, nationality or citizenship. Ethnicity is self-perceived and people can belong to more than one ethnic group. An ethnic group is made up of people who have some or all of the following characteristics: * a common proper name * one or more elements of common culture that need not be specified, but may include religion, customs, or language * unique community of interests, feelings and actions * a shared sense of common origins or ancestry, and * a common geographic origin. So there you go - you can be anything you like so long as you identify with it, except Pākehā. Does that make sense in NZ? BTW, on the census data, there are a lot of people who stated NZ European, or just plain New Zealander.	John H (8)
737994	2009-01-12 10:11:00	Yussss, my thread started another one :lol: I don't consider myself to be a kiwi (in terms of "Ethnic", even tho I am) but rather simply a "European/Pakeha"	--Wolf-- (128)
737995	2009-01-12 10:16:00	Which brings to mind, I think I'm in the middle of a cultural identity crisis. I seriously don't know what I am?? At least on a romantic (lol) level I can't culturally connect with Asians. It works with girls of other ethnicity (European, 'mutt') for a couple of weeks until the charm of the differences wear off. :lol:	qazwsxokmijn (102)
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