“He Iwi tahi tatou”: Aotearoa and the legacy of state-sponsored national narrative

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to discuss the internal historical forces that shaped national identity in New Zealand and how state-sponsored ideographs and cultural narratives, played out in nation branding, government–public relations activity, film and the literature, contributed to the rise of present days’ racism and hostility towards non-Pakeha constructions of New Zealand’s self-imagining.Design/methodology/approachThe paper takes a cultural materialist approach, coupled with postcolonial perspectives, to build an empirical framework to analyse specific historical texts and artefacts that were supported and promoted by the New Zealand Government at the point of decolonisation. Traditional constructions of cultural nationalism, communicated through state-sponsored advertising, public information films and national literature, are challenged and re-evaluated in the context of race, gender and socio-economic status.FindingsA total of three major groupings or themes were identified: crew, core and counterdiscourse cultures that each projected a different construction of New Zealand’s national identity. These interwoven themes produced a wider interpretation of identity than traditional cultural nationalist constructions allowed, still contributing to exclusionary formations of identity that alienated non-Pakeha New Zealanders and encouraged racism and intolerance.Research limitations/implicationsThe research study is empirical in nature and belongs to a larger project looking at a range of Pakeha constructions of identity. The article itself does not therefore fully consider Maori constructions of New Zealand’s identity.Originality/valueThe focus on combining cultural materialism, postcolonial approaches to analysis and counterdiscourse in order to analyse historical national narrative provides a unique perspective on the forces that contribute to racism and intolerance in New Zealand’s society. The framework developed can be used to evaluate the historical government communications activity and to better understand how nation branding leads to the exclusion of minority communities.

Editorial 29.1: History (and professionalization) of public relations

“…The conference has resulted in several special issues and edited books, which have contributed towards the development of the discipline (IHPRC, n.y) and the CCIJ has also supported this conference with a special issue published in Volume 25, Issue 4 guest edited by Anastasios Theofilou (lead conference organizer), Dustin W. Suppa, Kate Fitch and Anastasia Veneti, a group of scholars based in the UK, US and Australia. In that first CCIJ PR history collection, scholars analysed issues such as fascist propaganda (Thompson, 2020), the writing style of a prominent Irish PR educator (McGrath, 2020), open diplomacy and the link between diplomacy, PR and journalism (Gellrich et al , 2020), 19th century PR campaign to defend national sovereignty (Tantivejakul, 2020), a historical account of creating Chartered Institute of PR in the UK contributing to writing the history of institutionalizing PR (Gregory, 2020), the post-war television and PR in the context of family planners (Borge, 2020), PR measurements in the 1920s (Anderson, 2020), the history of teaching PR in Saudi Arabia (Zamoum and Gorpe, 2020), history in the PR curriculum (Fitch and L’Etang, 2020) and the role of PR in sponsored national narratives (Kinnear, 2020). The issue alone has made a meaningful contribution to the emerging discipline of PR history scholarship; however, other papers have been published from the same conference in other journals.…”

The next chapter of the New Zealand story: Storytelling as an export promotion tool in the international business policy context

“…Although the reality of life in New Zealand may not have lived up to these exalted descriptions, it planted the seed for the national identity of a South Pacific Shangri-La. The New Zealand government was eager to continue along this path, establishing a tourism department in 1901 -a world first of its kind (Kinnear, 2020). Throughout the early 20th century, the New Zealand brand was developed through a range of communication channels sponsored by the government.…”

“…Throughout the early 20th century, the New Zealand brand was developed through a range of communication channels sponsored by the government. This included informative and fictional films, and supporting writers to pen articles, novels and poems about New Zealand that were then given to New Zealanders travelling overseas to disperse to foreign counterparts (Kinnear, 2020). Again, New Zealand's approach to national brand building focused on storytelling, this time through film, journalism and fiction.…”

“…The clean, green imagery of the 100% Pure New Zealand campaign provoked earlier associations of New Zealand as a rural idyll that had been established throughout the twentieth century (Kinnear, 2020). Through its heritage as a farming nation, supported by a history of agricultural innovation and now its association with a pure environment, New Zealand reinforced the links between its nation brand identity and the food and beverage (F&B) sector.…”