Article

Constructing Identity Psychology and Developing Societies

26(2) 143–153

Spaces for First Nations

© 2014 Department of Psychology,
University of Allahabad
SAGE Publications
People: Towards an Los Angeles, London,
New Delhi, Singapore,
Indigenous Psychology Washington DC
DOI: 10.1177/0971333614549136

of Self-determination http://pds.sagepub.com

and Cultural Healing

James H. Liu
Victoria University of Wellington

Keri Lawson-Te Aho

University of Otago

Arama Rata
Victoria University of Wellington

Abstract
Indigenous psychology as a global movement includes First Nations
people who were colonised and live today as minorities amidst European
majorities in their homelands. This creates the imperative for a psychol-
ogy of self-determination and cultural healing. The six articles in this
Special Issue (SI) articulate different strands of such a First Nations
psychology; they are grounded in a liberation psychology of protest,
woven together with less confrontational forms of emancipation
involving the construction of alternative identity spaces. The articles
employ theories and practice that can be grouped into two themes:
(i) psychological resistance and endurance and (ii) social relations for
psychological creativity and generativity. Based on (i), two articles in
this SI develop a historical trauma paradigm for First Nations people to

Address correspondence concerning this article to Professor James H.

Liu, Centre for Applied Cross-Cultural Research, School of Psychology,
Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand. E-mail:
James.Liu@vuw.ac.nz
144 James H. Liu, Keri Lawson-Te Aho and Arama Rata

narrate psychological trauma as the product of intergenerational ‘soul

wounds’ inflicted by colonisation, which require empowering collec-
tive action. Based on (ii), the remaining articles focus on constructing
identity spaces where social relations amongst First Nations people
are valued as the source of psychological creativity and generativity.
Robust social relations from traditional genealogies to contemporary
online communities are used to form identity spaces that validate
indigenous identity and support the growth of First Nations languages.
Multiple ways of belonging are theorised to link different First Nations
people at different stages in identity development. As a dynamic but
essentialist view of identity, this body of work can be connected to
theorising about dynamism between independent and interdepend-
ent self-construals at the individual level, or the social construction of
individualism and collectivism at the group level.

Keywords
Indigenous psychology, first nations, liberation psychology, social identity,
self-determination, cultural healing

Indigenous psychology (IP) is a movement towards decolonisation that

has grown to global proportions (see Kim, Yang and Hwang, 2006 for a
book length overview). A driving force for the movement is decolonisa-
tion: in some places, this takes the form of non-Western people indigen-
ising psychological theory and practice as part of nation-building. This is
prevalent in Asia, and also in Latin America (for a snapshot overview,
see Allwood and Berry, 2006; for an in-depth classic, see Enriquez,
1992). But the ebbing of the high tide for Western colonisation has left
other people in more difficult situations. The material conquest of vast
tracts of the ‘New World’ by the colonisers’ guns, germs and steel
(Diamond, 1997) is fait accompli. A consequence of this is that a second
aspect of psychological decolonisation is represented by the drive for
self-determination among First Nations people living as ethnic minori-
ties in settler societies dominated by the people of European descent
(Churchill, 1997). The power asymmetry between sovereign people (e.g.,
in Asia, where population density and resistance to disease precluded
enduring European takeover) and First Nations people living as minori-
ties in predominantly Western countries has heretofore prevented them

Psychology and Developing Societies, 26, 2 (2014): 143–153

Constructing Identity Spaces for First Nations People 145

from being linked together in a global movement towards psychological

decolonisation. As First Nations people still live under conditions formu-
lated during colonisation, their ability to organise internationally has
been limited by a lack of resources, and their orientation towards phe-
nomena has been focused on local self-determination. Hence, the pur-
pose of this Special Issue (SI) is firstly to open a dialogue for Native
American and Māori researchers to articulate a First Nations IP of self-
determination and cultural healing. Second, we also consider points of
cross-fertilisation with IP movements globally.
In our view, IP among First Nations was birthed in what could be
termed liberation psychology (Fanon, 1967; Friere, 1970/2000), a
political protest movement against injustice and a search for knowl-
edge to upset or transform unjust power hierarchies (Smith, 1999).
By contrast, IP in Asia was birthed out of a cross-cultural psychology
grounded in the empiricism of mainstream psychology. Given that
Asian nations had already achieved self-determination, they became
more preoccupied with empirical issues, giving IP in Asia an enduring
scientific imprint that gives it a different blueprint than First Nations
IP. These two literatures have not been engaged in much mutually con-
structive dialogue to date. We, therefore, introduce a First Nations
approach to IP that weaves liberationist strands of protest together with
notions about the construction of alternative identity spaces being part
of a process of decolonisation. We examine how these may align with
more empiricist notions of collectivism (Hofstede, 2003; Triandis,
1994), the interdependent self (Markus and Kitayama, 1991) and rela-
tionalism (Hwang, 2012; Liu, 2014)to energise an IP strong in not only
in theory, but also in practice.
Drawing from these approaches, the two strands of theory and prac-
tice we use to structure the introduction to our diverse offering of articles
in this SI may be termed (i) psychological resistance and endurance and
(ii) social relations for psychological creativity and generativity.
The first strand comes from liberation psychology and pays homage
to the suffering and endurance of First Nations people in weathering
the high water mark of colonisation. As articles by Beltrán and Begun
(2014) and Lawson-Te Aho (2014) attest, the past 500 years of history
have yielded a bitter harvest for First Nations people as they have resisted
and endured colonisation by the West. For these authors, transforming
the bitter harvest of generations of damage caused by colonisation is at

Psychology and Developing Societies, 26, 2 (2014): 143–153

146 James H. Liu, Keri Lawson-Te Aho and Arama Rata

the heart of a model of cultural healing. The concept of historical trauma

developed by these and other authors is thoroughly collectivist: it con-
ceptualises the high rates of psychological trauma amongst First Nations
populations (e.g., high suicide and depression rates, PTSD, etc.) not as
evidence of individual dysfunction to be traced to epidemiological fac-
tors (as in medical research), but to collective experience of ‘cumulative
trauma occurring over the life span and across generations resulting from
massive catastrophic events targeting a community, from governments
or government-sponsored institutions’ (Beltrán and Begun, 2014):
‘Transmission of HT [historical trauma] is understood as occurring via
multiple pathways including explicit communication, silence and unre-
solved grief.’ This is precisely the case study articulated by Lawson-Te
Aho (2014), who describes the colonial era destruction of a hāpu (sub-
tribe) as the root cause of generations of subsequent sexual abuse. This
is a classic case of a ‘soul wound’ (Duran and Duran, 1995). The histori-
cal trauma paradigm allows for First Nations people to develop an alter-
native model for narrating empirical evidence of psychological trauma
that supports collective empowerment rather than personal patches
allowing individuals to muddle through a broken system. The construc-
tion of circles of healing, through culturally inspired and mandated com-
munities of story sharing (Beltrán and Begun, 2014) is aimed at
addressing soul wounds, or historical events that were destructive to the
physical, spiritual and psychological life-world rather than surface mani-
festations of trauma.
Within Native therapeutic theory, there is the notion that suffering
may be an important ingredient in the process of life development (Duran
and Duran, 1995): this notion of the redemptive power of suffering has
strongly spiritual elements that transcend and align with root cultural
metaphors in profound ways (see McAdams, 2006), and goes further
than popular notions of resilience in social science research (Bonanno,
Galea, Bucciarelli and Vlahov, 2007). New digital technologies (Beltrán
and Begun, 2014) may be combined with traditional healing circles to
open up safe spaces for communicating and sharing historical trauma
in a manner that engenders new and deeper understanding how and
when they came to be. These enable indigenous persons to gain a new
perspective on the sources of their suffering and teach them about how
to share these in a manner that not only heals old wounds, but also cre-
ates potentially new social relations formed through narratively sharing

Psychology and Developing Societies, 26, 2 (2014): 143–153

Constructing Identity Spaces for First Nations People 147

stories of suffering. Thus, transformative narration of social representa-

tions of history (Liu and Hilton, 2005) is at the root of the process of
psychological resistance and endurance put forward by the historical
trauma theorists and practitioners represented here. First Nations people
have to celebrate the survival of their intrepid ancestors, while accepting
the fact that they often had to endure circumstances beyond their control
that left residues of pain and suffering that will continue to fester unless
acknowledged for what they are: seminal moments of endurance that
nevertheless need to be brought into the open as fully conscious ele-
ments in the evolving life story of a healthy collective. As Lawson-Te
Aho (2014) notes, there is no glory in the choices of her ancestors that
opened the collective to sexual abuse: but at the same time, there is
strength in the fullness of knowing what the hāpu had to do to survive.
This can awaken an unbreakable resolve to make these sacrifices not in
vain and right wrongs in a manner that strengthens rather than weakens
the collective. But confronting historical trauma involves an essential-
ising of indigenous identity that can cause a lot of pain. Therefore,
there must be multiple pathways for First Nations people at different
personal and collective life stages in their journey towards self-deter-
mination and cultural healing.
The second strand of our theorising capitalises on the receding of
overtly colonising ideologies such as old-fashioned or aversive racism
(McConahay, 1986; Sears, 1993) and the opening up of more liberal ide-
ologies such as multiculturalism or biculturalism (Berry, 2013; Ward and
Liu, 2012). Just as traditional societies around the world were hollowed
out by colonisation and capitalism in previous centuries, today’s glo-
balising capitalism has unleashed borderless trade and liberalising ide-
ologies that privilege freedom of choice in a way that has hollowed out
the unitary nation-state (Liu, 2014). This opens up new opportunities for
constructing alternative identity spaces for First Nations people. Rather
than confronting the deadly impacts of colonisation head on, as in the
psychology of resistance and endurance described previously, the
remaining articles in our collection focus on constructing identity spaces
where social relations amongst First Nations people are the source of
psychological creativity and generativity. In this strand of indigenous
theorising, alternative, smaller self-determining identity spaces are
opened up beneath the greater canopy of the nation-state, without directly
confronting the colonising mechanisms of the past or ones still in place.

Psychology and Developing Societies, 26, 2 (2014): 143–153

148 James H. Liu, Keri Lawson-Te Aho and Arama Rata

This strategy relies on the massive openings for pluralism that have
opened up with neoliberalism.
But the key to this strategy, as noted by Liu (2014) is mutually bind-
ing relationships of various types. The theme of interdependence, or the
binding power of social relations, is articulated as whakapapa (geneal-
ogy) in traditional Māori society (Lawson-Te Aho, 2014; White and
Rewi, 2014); this is still of paramount importance, but expands into
wider and more contemporary forms of social relations such as mentor–
mentee relations and online relationships amongst First Nations people
or wherein First Nations people are responsible for educating non-indig-
enous allies (Te Huia, 2014). Te Huia (2014) argues that a separation
strategy may be necessary for First Nations people to develop confident
expertise in their heritage language, because barriers to indigenous lan-
guage fluency are strong in mainstream settings. As Beltrán and Begun
(2014) point out, modern technologies as the Internet may be co-opted
by indigenous people as a means of expanding their self-determining
identity spaces. The interweaving of tradition with modernity is evident
in White and Rewi’s article (2014) on the importance of Māori dialects
in forming identity spaces. The participants in their study accepted both
the need to speak Māori in a standardised way that allows for communi-
cation between regions, and the value of retaining their dialect as a
marker localised identity.
Generativity is a theme taken up by Lewis’ (2014) study of Alaskan
Native Elders: they wanted to age in place, a common theme amongst
elders internationally, but their passion was for community-based social
engagements such as teaching youth, serving as role models and pass-
ing on knowledge of what it means to be Native Alaskan. Generativity
in this First Nations context was articulated by Elders as more commu-
nal than individual. The restoration of indigenous communities with an
integral role for Elders is central to the construction of indigenous iden-
tity spaces in many ways: it links up to the language issues identified by
Te Huia (2014) and Rewi (2014), as Elders are often carriers of native
language and tradition. Robust social relations, in identity spaces that
validate indigenous identity, are central to the survival and growth of
First Nations languages, and by extension, indigenous values and iden-
tity spaces.
An important bridging paper that links these two theoretical orienta-
tions is provided by Rata, Liu and Hutchings’ article (2014) describing

Psychology and Developing Societies, 26, 2 (2014): 143–153

Constructing Identity Spaces for First Nations People 149

the Pōwhiri identity negotiation framework. It acknowledges that while

cultural revitalisation is of utmost importance to indigenous people, there
are multiple ways of being indigenous that have to be accommodated for
the movement to thrive as a whole. Adopting the constructionist position
pioneered by Friere (1970/2000), Rata et al. (2014) argue that ‘the optimal
development of oppressed individuals is achieved by changing social real-
ity, rather than attempting to change only the oppressed individuals them-
selves’: they construct a dialogical and dynamic stage model of identity
built on the Māori story of creation, as enacted through the living ritual of
marae encounters. This provides metaphorical and social bonds to draw
together living circles of social relations, varying in shape, form and pur-
pose. This culture-bound model of conscientisation (Friere, 1970/2000)
may be used to draw threads that connect indigenous people who have yet
to be awakened to their First Nations identities to those who are at the
forefront of fighting for self-determination to those who are working qui-
etly to furnish nourishment to those in need.

Conclusion
The two theoretical strands presented come together in other ways as
well. The first is via the idea of social space (Liu and Sibley, 2004), ‘an
intersubjective matrix of psychological distances based on physical and
social reality that provides a framework constraining how people are
influenced by one another’ (p. 374). Making social identity spaces that
privilege First Nations people, ideas and institutional practices is central
to the approach to self-determination and cultural healing presented in
these papers. Proximity in physical space is important, but no more so
than the subjective element of shared meaning necessary to transform
physical space into a place where First Nations identity can thrive (see
Te Huia, 2014). This notion of social space would align with classical
notions of collectivism described in cross-cultural psychology (Triandis,
1994). Maintaining and strengthening the integrity of indigenous social
space is critical to indigenous self-determination.
However, we also acknowledge the variability and multiplicity of
indigenous people in this age. Not all First Nations people will be com-
fortable in exclusively indigenous identity spaces (see Rata et al., 2014),

Psychology and Developing Societies, 26, 2 (2014): 143–153

150 James H. Liu, Keri Lawson-Te Aho and Arama Rata

so there is a need for bridging ties, and for those at different stages in
identity development to accept others at various stages in development.
As people living in predominantly Western (individualistic) societies,
First Nations people have had to be adaptive and adaptable to circum-
stances. Sometimes, this has involved adopting independent self-con-
struals (Harrington and Liu, 2002; Markus and Kitayama, 1991).
Because of the variability of indigenous experiences, it seems desirable
for First Nations collectives to simultaneously (i) maintain a commit-
ment to First Principles, that is, to maintain an essentialised identity
(Lawson-Te Aho, 2014) while (ii) allowing for elasticity in the inclu-
sion of others at different stages in their identity development (Rata
et al., 2014). The dynamism characteristic of biculturals in Hong Kong
and North America (see Hong, Morris, Chiu and Benet-Martinez, 2000),
who move between independent and interdependent self-construal
depending on the situation, is probably also characteristic of First
Nations people. Pluralism is a great characteristic of this age where the
worst excesses of colonisation have receded: it behoves indigenous
First Nations psychology to take advantage of this freedom to construct
a multiplicity of social spaces connected to one another by social rela-
tions for the purpose of self-determination and cultural healing. In these
spaces and the space between them, indigenous people may find per-
sonal healing as well.

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James H. Liu (劉豁夫) is professor of psychology at Victoria University

of Wellington, New Zealand, and co-director of its Centre for Applied
Cross Cultural Research (http://cacr.victoria.ac.nz). His research is in
social, cross-cultural and political psychology. He specialises in social
representations of history and their relationship to identity, prejudice,
politics, and intergroup relations. He has more than 160 refereed publi-
cations, with edited volumes including New Zealand Identities: Departures
and Destinations, Restorative Justice and Practices in New Zealand and
Progress in Asian Social Psychology, Volumes 2 and 6. He was editor-in-
chief of the Asian Journal of Social Psychology from 2008 to 2011 and is
currently president of the Asian Association of Social Psychology. A
naturalised citizen of two countries, he describes himself as a ‘Chinese-
American-New Zealander’.

Keri Lawson-Te Aho is a full time Māori Public Health lecturer and
research fellow at the University of Otago, Wellington. She has more

Psychology and Developing Societies, 26, 2 (2014): 143–153

Constructing Identity Spaces for First Nations People 153

than 30 years’ experience in Māori public health from policy develop-

ment, research through to intervention and programme design. She also
has experience in Māori community development having worked for a
number of tribes in framing and formalising healthcare responses. She
was a research Fellow with the East West Center in Hawai’i in 1995 and
completed research placements in Indigenous Public Health at the Johns
Hopkins Medical School, Indian health services, Rockville Maryland, and
the Native American Research and Training Center at the University
of Arizona, Tucson. Her interests are in the areas of indigenous self-
determination and development, historical trauma and healing and sui-
cide prevention.

Arama Rata has tribal affiliations to Taranaki, Ngaruahine, and

Ngati Maniapoto. She is currently a lecturer at Victoria University
of Wellington’s School of Māori Studies, Te Kawa a Māui, where
she teaches courses on Māori society and culture, and the Treaty of
Waitangi. She completed her PhD in psychology in 2012, which focused
on Māori identity development in State secondary schools. Her current
research is focused on the effects of the New Zealand colonial wars on
contemporary Māori experiences, and inter-group relations.

Psychology and Developing Societies, 26, 2 (2014): 143–153