The need for self-policing as a Māori woman. Especially when you’re in white spaces or spaces where there are not many Māori. You analyse the situation and think about how am I going to speak? How am I going to act? What am I going to do and that comes from a place of being marginalised? And it goes in turn with colonisation and colonial racism and this ideology we have of this is what a good Māori sounds like, acts like and does. (Te Ika- a-Māui Māori focus group) ‘Colonised’ thought and judgement of own culture: Māori and Pacific focus groups highlighted that historical and intergenerational impacts of colonisation continued to influence how some Māori and Pacific peoples saw and judged themselves and each other based on Western ideals. The control of mind to leave your language behind and to aspire to the English language, it’s so ingrained.... Although we came here for education, our minds were already controlled by racism by the Pākehā that came over…That really reinforced that mentality of I’m not good enough. A lot of us came into this country not feeling good enough. (Cook Islands focus group) I was inwardly racist towards myself and Māori as well, the majority of my friends were Pākehā and I was the token Māori in my group. When I was with my Māori friends, I was the token Pākehā. I was always sitting in between so I would dismiss that side of myself because it was looked at in a negative way. (Te Ika- a-Māui Māori focus group) We as Samoans we are also [racist] towards other Samoans...Like if we go into [Government department] and there is a Samoan working there, you can see by their mannerisms, facial experiences that they don’t like you...even within our own culture we are racist. (Samoan focus group) In line with this view, most Pacific focus groups noted that colonisation had perpetuated beliefs of white superiority that have been engrained within and (mis)perceived as cultural values/beliefs over generations such as colourism. There’s a lot of stuff that goes back to the migrants that went to Tonga. Our culture also enables that Eurocentric perception that being European is better and being white is better than Tongan… Where does that perception come from? It then becomes a cultural belief - the longer something has been passed down by the Palagi, it becomes part of our generational thinking. (Tongan focus group) If we're going to talk about racism, we need to talk about colourism, in our Tuvaluan culture growing up, my grandma would say “Oh don’t go outside because no one wants to marry a dark skin girl”. You're pretty because you got fair skin. (Tuvaluan focus group) Assimilation: All participants provided mixed views on migrants assimilating to a Western society within Aotearoa New Zealand culture. Some considered it necessary to fit in, achieve and prosper. Others compared assimilation to a loss of culture and identity. In line with this latter view, migration to Aotearoa New Zealand did not equate to leaving culture, values and beliefs behind. Many participants thought unique and diverse identities should be embraced and that everyone should feel comfortable, accepted, respected and valued for who they are. www.malatest-intl.com Drivers of racism – March 2021 59