Pacific peoples, New Zealand housing-related political rhetoric and epistemic violence

Abstract

In the nearly 50 years since the Dawn Raids, Pacific peoples have continuously faced a housing crisis defined by precarious dwellings. This article employs content analysis to examine the political framing of Pacific peoples in housing-related political rhetoric from 2007 to 2021. The analysis reveals that Pacific peoples almost exclusively featured only in discussions led by Pacific and Māori politicians who sought to add their communities’ perspectives into debates where most politicians either ignored them or made uninformed comments. The findings reveal levels of epistemic violence, meaning Pacific peoples are placed in positions where they have to prove their experiences are real within power structures that render institutional constraints invisible. Limited attention towards the specificity of what this article refers to as the “Pacific housing crisis” illustrates an active ignorance employed to uphold the dominant epistemic order. Just like the Dawn Raids, which fell into national amnesia and were erased from public memory for decades, the Pacific housing crisis follows the same trend.