Tree grown from many layers: An Indigenous perspective of collective identity

Abstract

We provide a perspective based on a gradual and spontaneous organic landscape perception of how and where Indigenous identity emerges and is nurtured. We interweave our work into Evelyn Stokes’ call for distinctive New Zealand geographies that embrace our locational and contextual specificities, but we attempt to do this outside of any colonial tainting by Eurocentric framings (so far as that is possible) using a Kaupapa Māori approach. We elaborate Indigenous-derived perspectives on understanding intimate and enduring bonds between place, space, landscape and identity – as framed by Māori researchers engaging in the co-production of knowledge with local Indigenous communities.