New Zealanders

I wasn’t a huge fan of the trend to write one’s nationality as “New Zealander” on the census, mainly because as such a big users of Stats NZ data, I didn’t want to contribute to making it less useful.

However sociology professor Charles Crother (never thought I would be agreeing with a sociology professor!) makes a strong case in the NZ Herald that ethnicity is not just about ancestry or race but cultural affiliation, and that especially for younger New Zealanders born in NZ, the tag of European is one they feel no affinity for. It is almost a rejection of European culture for NZ culture (and it is different).

I did tick NZ European/Caucasian in the Census. But who knows, next time I may join the 500,000 Kiwis who wrote in “New Zealander”. Because that certainly is my culture.