Trans-Indigeneity and Sovereignty That Endures: Reflections on Māori Diaspora

Abstract

“Trans-Indigeneity” broadly refers to two movements: the way Indigeneity moves and shifts with Pacific peoples as we move across oceanic space, and the way that our historical and ongoing transregional relations defy colonial expectations, categories and imaginations. This article offers critical reflections on trans-Indigeneity as a theoretical framework for understanding the complexities of Pacific movements and the accountabilities of Pacific diaspora. With a focus on Māori diasporic movement onto the unceded sovereign territories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, I ask how scholars might complicate an existing focus on Pacific relationality to foreground the vital question of what it has meant to make lives on other peoples’ lands.