Power, Position and Practice: Conscientisation and decolonial solidarity of Southeast Asian migrants in Aotearoa

<p dir="ltr"><b>Scholars have conceptualised decolonial solidarity through notions of reciprocity, relationality, and mutuality. In Aotearoa New Zealand, constitutionally honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi—an 1840 agreement between sovereign nations (hapū) and the Crown—is essential for decolonisation. However, relevant scholarship in Aotearoa on honouring Te Tiriti focuses mostly on the role of the dominant white settler population. Despite making up 17.3% of the country’s population, Asian migrants (Asian tauiwi) are rarely subjects of academic exploration in this field. Yet, relations of solidarity between Indigenous Māori and Asian tauiwi are critical to advance decolonisation.</b></p><p dir="ltr">This thesis fills the significant empirical and theoretical gaps in scholarship on Māori-Asian solidarity. Building on critical theories about solidarity, this thesis examines conscientisation and decolonial solidarity from the perspectives and experiences of 15 Southeast Asian tauiwi and five Te Tiriti-centred workers and educators. Through semi-structured interviews, participants discussed their experiences of growing critical consciousness of Te Tiriti and colonialism, the barriers and opportunities they encountered in the process, and forging decolonial solidarity in everyday life.</p><p dir="ltr">This thesis’s findings suggest that Southeast Asian tauiwi participants have encountered multiple barriers to conscientisation and decolonial solidarity. This includes the colonial representations and narratives about Aotearoa, which shaped how participants understood the country’s settler colonial history and present. Despite these barriers, participants developed conscientisation in many ways. Narratives about understanding colonialism through an international context were particularly prominent. Participants’ conscientisation and decolonial solidarity expanded when they compared colonialism in Aotearoa with their Southeast Asian homelands’ histories and political contexts. As such, they confronted colonialism at multiple levels and intersections, not just based on their position as racial minorities in Aotearoa or victims of colonial forces in Southeast Asia, but also sometimes as part of privileged classes in Aotearoa and their homelands. Thus, critical education on colonialism and decolonisation beyond the boundaries of ‘New Zealand’ can be transformative for immigrant communities.</p><p dir="ltr">This thesis makes two key contributions to conceptualisations of decolonial solidarity in Aotearoa. Firstly, participants’ narratives highlight the need for tauiwi to identify and articulate colonial power dynamics to resist reproducing coloniality in educational and organising spaces. Reflecting on their positionality as Southeast Asian tauiwi in settler colonial society, participants considered the extent and limitations of their roles in decolonial solidarity practices. This contribution extends the literature on Indigenous-migrant relations that explores how decolonial solidarity can be fostered between differently oppressed and unevenly situated groups.</p><p dir="ltr">Secondly, this study affirms theories illustrating how conscientisation and decolonial solidarity are forms of praxis, enriched through non-linear processes that evolve through practice. For some participants, solidarity with Māori emerged emotionally (through perceived cultural similarities, understanding of marginalisation, or a personal sense of justice), before they had intellectual knowledge about Te Tiriti or colonialism. This suggests opportunities for existing social solidarity between Māori and racialised tauiwi to be politicised and transformed through critical education and practice. Te Tiriti-centred workers and educators must embrace the complexities of Southeast Asian tauiwi epistemologies and ontologies to strengthen their conscientisation and decolonial solidarity, and to galvanise them for the movement to honour Te Tiriti.</p>