Doctoral Student Profile

Rose Black

Supervisors: Jane Ritchie, Neville Robertson, Heather Hamerton

Marking the unmarked: Pakeha cultural markers in dominant group members talk in Aotearoa
My thesis is that people who are members of a dominant group have little or no need name themselves as cultural; rather they are part of the fabric of the way things are done.  They tend to control the language, social and political agendas of the nation and see themselves largely in terms of their national identity, often to the detriment of other cultural and ethnic groups living in the same nation. The aim of this thesis is to establish the ways in which some dominant group members in Aotearoa come to name themselves as Pakeha; acknowledge their relationships under the Treaty of Waitangi; and to mark as cultural their lifestyle, values and practices.