This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). 1 ISSN: ISSN 1837-0144 © International Journal of Critical Indigenous Studies International Journal of Critical Indigenous Studies Volume 7, Number 1, 2014 Theorising the structural dynamics of ethnic privilege in Aotearoa: Unpacking “this breeze at my back” (Kimmell and Ferber 2003) By Helen Moewaka Barnes, Belinda Borell, Tim McCreanor Whariki Research Group SHORE and Whariki Research Centre School of Public Health, Massey University Auckland, New Zealand Abstract Colonial praxis has been imposed on the culture, epistemologies and praxis of indigenous Maori in Aotearoa, entrenching the settler cultural project that ensures the continuation of the colonial state, producing damaging disparities. This article theorises ways in which settler privilege works at multiple levels supporting settler interests, aspirations and sensibilities. In institutions, myriad mundane processes operate through commerce, law, media, education, health services, environment, religion and international relations constituting settler culture, values and norms. Among individuals, settler discursive/ideological frameworks are hegemonic, powerfully influencing interactions with Maori to produce outcomes that routinely suit settlers. In the internalised domain, there is a symbiotic sense of belonging, rightness, entitlement and confidence that the established social hierarchies will serve settler interests. This structure of privilege works together with overt and implicit acts of racism to reproduce a collective sense of superiority. It requires progressive de-mobilising together with anti-racism efforts to enable our society to move toward social justice. Keywords Theory, structural analysis, racism, privilege, social order. Introduction The Maori people … want to have things both ways. They expect all the privileges of racial equality … but when some claim can be made for preferential treatment, they vigorously demand to be treated not as New Zealanders but as Maoris …” (Observer, 29 April, 1953 cited in Ballara, 1986, p117.) In the context of the entrenched colonial society of New Zealand, this quote, from a newspaper editorial 60 years ago, is among myriad mundane expressions of the contempt with which the established social order has long judged Maori society and culture. Maori, the indigenous people of Aotearoa, are explicitly double-positioned as privileged through enjoying the same benefits as other citizens of colonial society, but also as having ‘preferential treatment’. These notions of privilege reconstruct our history of injustice and colonisation, and fly in the face of most measurable indicators of Maori social standing and wellbeing (Robson and Harris 2007; Smith 2012; Walker 2004) Such manoeuvres reflect the discursive component of what Billig (1995) has referred to as “banal nationalism”, the practices and processes by which an illicit and unjust colonialism (Walker 2004; Smith 2012) has been imposed and maintained through all the instruments of