Indigenous peoples in developed nations are more likely to be overweight, obese, and disproportionately affected by the comorbidities and physical disorders associated with weight when compared with their counterparts. Beyond the physical ailments are a variety of psychological, emotional, and social issues which are associated with being 'fat' and/or overweight and/or from subsequent stigmatisation. Long before this world's populations reached the current alarming level of obesity, Māori (the indigenous people of New Zealand) were stigmatised, like so many other colonised peoples, because of the colour of their skin, their beliefs, and their culture. Stigma is nothing new to Māori, and so when we are told that we are fat and less productive (or moral) because of our 'fatness', we are not surprised because we have been told the same thing (albeit for a different reason) for generations. Considering the relatively high proportion of Māori people who don't fit the 'recommended weight range', the justification for racism is seemingly strengthened. In this paper, we explore i) Māori and white perceptions of weight, and ii) who benefits from racism and fat-shaming. We then iii) outline New Zealand policy and practice and iv) propose indigenous solutions and measures as pathways out of fat-shaming.

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In this paper we consider what impact a biopolitics that creates a compliant self-governing weight-focused population has had on Māori health in Aotearoa/New Zealand. We frame this discussion with three vignettes that in different ways demonstrate the deleterious effects of the individualisation of health on Māori. We argue that the current biopolitics is best explained as 'the health of Maoris' not 'Māori Health'. To counter this current biopolitics we put forward an alternative epistemology, the 'Atua Matua' framework. This epistemology pays respect to a Māori view of health that is holistic, encompassing physical, emotional, spiritual, cultural and familial well-being and does not give ground to the requirement for individualism so prevalent in neoliberalism. 3

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