Abstract:
Ngati Kahungunu is an ideal example to investigate the processes of identity management and
socio-political representation within and outside of their traditional tribal territory. It is the third
most populous iwi in Aotearoa/New Zealand, with approximately 60,000 members, and boundaries
that span from the Wairoa district down to the Wairarapa region. Kahungunu's complexity and
dynamism are not restricted to its territorial boundaries. A large portion of Kahungunu members
form expatriate tribal communities located beyond their tribal district.
The Wellington region hosts the largest number of Kahungunu members dwelling outside of their
tribal territory, as well as the Ngati Kahungunu Embassy. The Embassy is an organisation which,
like many other expatriate Maori tribal bodies, faces the challenges of locating and reaching its
tribal members to connect them to their Kahungunu home and heritage, while simultaneously
representing their particular, Wellington-specific voices. This thesis explores the ways that Ngati
Kahungunu identities are articulated, maintained and transformed by individuals and institutions in
Wellington today, by analysing qualitative interviews with ten Kahungunu men and women, and a
case study on the Kahungunu Embassy.
Three chapters on iwi identity, home and social organisation illustrate how Kahungunu voices in
Wellington can more adequately be heard, and their experiences included, in the tribe, despite their
apparent geographic and cultural distance. A range of theoretical tools, including Diaspora theory,
urban indigeneity, translocalism, flexible notions of home and belongingness to group, as well as
cultural concepts grounded in Maori epistemology, such as whakapapa, are useful to reflect upon
diverse ways of belonging to community and to place(s). I argue that many Kahungunu in
Wellington extend and expand the meaning of 'be(com)ing' Kahungunu through introducing the
concept of a 'third space of forms'. The semantic expansions of identity, home and social
organisation can inform the purpose and direction of groups, like the Kahungunu Embassy, to better
reflect the lived realities of its members.
