Working Group on Emergent Indigenous Identities- WGEII

The Working Group on Emergent Indigenous Identities (WGEII) was created to address the issue of the “emergent” nature of indigeneity (Indigenous identity) in contemporary times. Researchers from a number of disciplinary backgrounds including Sociology, Psychology, Politics, Education, and Literature, came together to share unpublished scholarly work on topics such as identity formation, forms of cultural expression amongst Indigenous peoples, and how individuals and groups accommodate and challenge existing notions of indigeneity. The forum proved to be rich in cross-disciplinary thinking about Indigeneity and led to the commitment to produce an edited volume comprised of the revised essays that each scholar presented to our group.

In 2013, The Politics of Identity: Emergent Indigeneity (Michelle Harris, Martin Nakata and Bronwyn Carson) was published by the University of Technology Sydney ePress. In it, Working Group members and other scholars of Indigenous Studies interrogated a range of topics including how Indigenous Identities are changing in New Zealand, how social media influences constitutes a new frontier in expressing one’s self as an Aboriginal Australian, the intricacies of making “indigenous” films by and about Native Americans, and how Parakyo Massai negotiate staying true to their identities in the face of the physical and instrumental encroachment on their lifestyle from the state and from non-indigenous communities.