‘Just another way of wriggling off the hook’? Exploring the construction of identity in Pākehā memoirs

Abstract

This article examines four memoirs that explore Pākehā identity: Peter Wells, Dear Oliver: Uncovering a Pākehā history (2018), Alison Jones, This Pākehā Life: An unsettled memoir (2020), Richard Shaw’s The Forgotten Coast (2021) and John Bluck’s Becoming Pākehā (2022). Each writer engages with history – and their predecessor Michael King – to contextualise their personal stories, work through their discomfort at being part of the dominant group, and participate in creating a more just national discourse. However, their centering of histories of individuals simultaneously engages with and disavows the racialised power structures rooted in the past that still shape the present.