On Friday morning, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern delivered the Harvard University Commencement Speech. Standing before the assembled university officials and graduates, she used the platform to rally against disinformation¹. Because the audience for this speech wasn’t just this cohort of fresh-faced young Henry Kissingers and Sheryl Sandbergs, her speechwriters chose her words carefully. This speech would be heard, read and tweeted about around the world and was an opportunity to get its international audience to think about New Zealand™.

New Zealand™ is open for business–now it’s time to promote the damn thing.

Like clockwork, the speech immediately elicited gushing praise from her die-hard supporters and admonishment from her right-wing haters. Beyond the noise though, it painted a very deliberate picture of New Zealand™. This picture was coloured with all the assumptions and shortcomings of liberal democracy.

So, if you’re the next George W. Bush staring up at our Prime Minister in slack-jawed wonder or simply a nobody rolling around in the mud with the rest of us, you might be asking: “What is New Zealand™?” Hopefully the Prime Minister has answered those questions.

¹ ᵀʰᵉ ʷᵃʸ ᶦⁿ ʷʰᶦᶜʰ ᵈᶦˢᶦⁿᶠᵒʳᵐᵃᵗᶦᵒⁿ ᶦˢ ᶠʳᵃᵐᵉᵈ ᶦˢ ᵛᵉʳʸ ᶠᵃˢᶜᶦⁿᵃᵗᶦⁿᵍ ᵛᵉʳʸ ᶦᵐᵖᵒʳᵗᵃⁿᵗ ᵃⁿᵈ ᵛᵉʳʸ ᵒᵘᵗˢᶦᵈᵉ ᵗʰᵉ ˢᶜᵒᵖᵉ ᵒᶠ ᵗʰᶦˢ ᵃʳᵗᶦᶜˡᵉ

1. New Zealand™ is a “good colony”

Jacinda Ardern began her speech with an evocation of Māori, the Indigenous people of Aotearoa. This is not, of course, a segue into the political authority of tangata whenua in Aotearoa and the illegitimate power that the Crown asserts. No, like other colonial evocations of te reo, Māori worldviews and culture, Indigenous identity is flaunted as part of a strategic international branding exercise. The implications behind her opening are clear: in my colony, we love our Indigenous people (while the Massachusett Tribe land she stood on remained unacknowledged).

Ardern’s allusions to Te Ao Māori bring to mind the same entitlement that Prince Harry expressed when he recently launched an eco-travel scheme “inspired by kaitiakitanga and manaakitanga”. The perverse, layered ironies of a figure of the Empire pulling Indigenous values out of their political context to sell an individualistic solution to the problem of climate catastrophe caused by colonial capitalism, before travelling to his next destination in a private jet, was apparently completely lost on him.

Using Māori identity as a branding exercise is almost as old as colonialism itself. Māori TV is running a series on the practice of tā moko. It details how the tradition has been simultaneously vilified and suppressed (through the Tohunga Suppression Act 1907), and commodified and exploited (through global trade of mokomokai which once fetched high prices in Europe and America). Today, taonga and Māori life continue to be marketed for tourism, trade, or global PR to give New Zealand™ a “unique Indigenous culture”, while Māori political authority and tino rangatiratanga is undermined by a monopolising settler government.

2. New Zealand™ is a multicultural, diverse society that Recognises™ minorities

There is an assumption that Western liberal democracy (achieved, because we need reminding, largely through colonial capitalism, theft of Indigenous land and on the backs of colonial genocide) contains universal virtues that we must all strive for.

This imperfect but precious way that we organise ourselves, that has been created to give equal voice to the weak and to the strong,
that is designed to help drive consensus – it is fragile.

Like many others, this assumes that democratic values of “majority rules” have a miraculous and balming effect on the world’s oppressions. Most significantly is the aesthetic (to borrow the Zoomers’ lingo) nature of this multicultural, diverse haven that New Zealand™ parades. Ardern rattles off the various identities that make up our parliament, presenting to the world minority politicians like gems on display. New Zealand™ parliament has them all! Māori! LGTBQI+ people! …uh, Women!

That representation within and recognition from the Crown has not led to what we require as a society² is a feature of liberalism. State-led diversity is simply a performance, with little influence on the unyielding grip over power that the Crown has had.

Significantly, such representations also adopt an ahistorical understanding of Western systems of organisation. These legislative structures, health and educational institutions and knowledge systems which have forced entire societies into Eurocentric assimilation and alienated people from land and nature are assumed to be impartial. It becomes the only history worth looking at. Indigenous history, in this way, is made invisible (except as texture, see above) and ways of structuring society before Western democracy came along are rendered illegitimate.

Ardern kept all of this contained in her disclaimer: “This imperfect but precious way that we organise ourselves.” She exemplified the work of Leah Bell and Waimarama Anderson who brought in a petition to parliament to fight for the teaching of Aotearoa histories. See, some change is possible within a good, multicultural, diverse democracy that treats its minorities nicely! In this imagination, Western democracy can contain flaws, but its legitimacy and virtuousness should not be questioned. Indigenous and minority worldviews are reduced in significance, but may be recognised at the whims of the state.

² ᶜᵒⁿˢᵗᶦᵗᵘᵗᶦᵒⁿᵃˡ ᵗʳᵃⁿˢᶠᵒʳᵐᵃᵗᶦᵒⁿ ᶠᵒʳ ᶦⁿˢᵗᵃⁿᶜᵉ ᵃˢ ᵉⁿᵛᶦˢᶦᵒⁿᵉᵈ ᶦⁿ ᴹᵃᵗᶦᵏᵉ ᴹᵃᶦ ᴬᵒᵗᵉᵃʳᵒᵃ

3. New Zealand™ is so much less sexist than the Muslim world…

In her speech, Ardern drew a number of parallels between herself and assassinated Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto. Bhutto had stood on that same stage 33 years earlier. Bhutto was the woman in charge of an ostensibly progressive political party who had given birth in office. Bhutto even shares a birthday with our Prime Minister’s baby, Neve. However, Ardern was less eager to draw the same parallels between New Zealand™ and Pakistan.

She was the first Muslim female Prime Minister elected in an Islamic country, when a woman in power was a rare thing.

It doesn’t seem to matter that Bhutto was elected 9 years before Jenny Shipley rolled Jim Bolger and 11 years before New Zealand elected Helen Clark. The long tradition of women leadership in Islam, enshrined in the Qu’ran and Hadith is ignored, in favour of this Islamophobic narrative that Islam is inherently sexist. Of course, it’d be reductive to assume that a woman leader is inherently better (there’s a reason Ardern didn’t cite Golda Meir, Isabel Perón or Margaret Thatcher). But the important thing is the orientalist, inaccurate framing of Muslim countries as more sexist than liberal Western democracy.

I read those words as I sat in my office in Wellington, New Zealand. A world away from Pakistan.

The way in which liberals frame Muslim women is apparent in how they talk about Afghanistan where the US and the UK used women’s rights as a pretext for their invasion. When accepting refugees, Muslim women and children are seen as needing to be saved and by extension, Muslim men are viewed with suspicion.

Following the recent blow against abortion rights in the US, American libs have compared the Supreme Court to the Taliban. Never mind that this brand of misogyny is inherently Christian. Why cite Islam, which has no explicit prohibition of abortion and not New Zealand, which only legalised abortion in 2020? Because it goes against the liberal narrative of backwards Muslims needing to catch up to join us at the end of history³.

This framing of New Zealand™ as a feminist paradise in comparison to Muslim countries is such an important part of our branding, that it is proudly displayed by Immigration NZ. On the website for New Zealand Now, there are customised sub-pages made to draw potential migrants from different countries to consider making New Zealand™ a place to live and/or work – depending on where they come from, of course. “Live here!” they declare, to the wealthy, white settlers who click on Compare UK/USA/Canada/Australia/South Africa to New Zealand pages. “We share your values! Work-life balance for everyone!”

“Work,” the page on Moving from the Pacific Islands says firmly. “Find a job first. Make sure you keep working.”

And on the Compare Malaysia to New Zealand page, it (passive aggressively) asserts, “You’ll broaden your horizons in a western-style culture,” to potential migrants who come from this Muslim-majority Southeast Asian country. Then quite blatantly and randomly adds: “Women have important roles right through society.”

Each page pulls specific characteristics of the country. Coming from Singapore? You must be looking for wide open spaces. We have fjords. Malaysia? You must be used to misogyny. We have women.

³ ᵀʰᵉʳᵉ’ˢ ᵃⁿᵒᵗʰᵉʳ ᵃʳᵗᶦᶜˡᵉ ʰᵉʳᵉ ᵃᵇᵒᵘᵗ ʰᵒʷ ᶜᵒⁿˢᵉʳᵛᵃᵗᶦˢᵐ ᶦⁿ ᴹᵘˢˡᶦᵐ ᶜᵒᵘⁿᵗʳᶦᵉˢ ᶦˢ ᵒᶠᵗᵉⁿ ᵉˣᵖˡᶦᶜᶦᵗʸ ᵗʰᵉ ʳᵉˢᵘˡᵗ ᵒᶠ ᶜᵒˡᵒⁿᶦᵃˡ ᵖʳᵒʲᵉᶜᵗˢ ᴿᵉᵃᵈ ᵀʰᵉ ᴶᵃᵏᵃʳᵗᵃ ᴹᵉᵗʰᵒᵈ ᶠᵒʳ ᵒⁿᵉ ʰᶦˢᵗᵒʳʸ ᵒᶠ ʰᵒʷ ᵗʰᵉ ᵁˢᴬ ᶜʳᵘˢʰᵉᵈ ᵃ ᵐᵒᵛᵉᵐᵉⁿᵗ ᵗʰᵃᵗ ᶦⁿᶜᵒʳᵖᵒʳᵃᵗᵉᵈ ᶠᵉᵐᶦⁿᶦˢᵐ ᵈᵉᶜᵒˡᵒⁿᶦᵃˡᶦˢᵐ ᵃⁿᵈ ᴵˢˡᵃᵐ ᶦⁿ ᶠᵃᵛᵒᵘʳ ᵒᶠ ᵃ ʳᶦᵍʰᵗ⁻ʷᶦⁿᵍ ᵍᵒᵛᵉʳⁿᵐᵉⁿᵗ

4. …but that doesn’t make New Zealanders™ Americans or anything!

Of course, just because New Zealand™ is better than Pakistan, doesn’t mean we’re too much like America. In fact, a good portion of Ardern’s speech was taking shots at the precarious political system of her hosts.

She did this through reference to our MMP government (“which essentially means every vote counts”), our progress on climate action and recent legislation on abortion and gun control. Notwithstanding our own very slow (or non-existent) progress on co-governance (see above), climate action, abortion (see above) or gun control, it’s easy to point to the US as an extreme example of a liberal democracy gone wrong. We’re talking about a country where institutions are crumbling, where the poorest communities are feeling the brunt of the climate catastrophe, where abortion rights are in peril and where yet another gunman has just murdered children while the cops did nothing.

America is going through some shit right now and that makes New Zealand™ an attractive alternative. On the New Zealand Now page for Compare USA to New Zealand, it makes this comparison explicit, citing our “calm and polite political debate”, “healthcare much more affordable than in the USA,” and a low “risk of personal violence.” This relatively benign reputation is what makes us attractive to ‘people’ like Peter Thiel.

An explicit appeal to wealthy Americans fleeing their sinking ship of a country, feels a lot like the influx of white South Africans who escaped the horrors of a less racist society for New Zealand 30 years ago. The flip-side of this is the migrants we don’t take: poor people, refugees, our Pacific neighbours. The Green List has been criticised for the two-tier migration system it has created and this is simply the most recent example in a historic migration system that has prioritised wealthy, white and agreeable migrants. This project stretches all the way from colonisation, through the moment Heather du Plessis-Allan first tainted these shores with her presence, right up to the Harvard address.

Our borders are opening to cruise ships and Lambton Quay is preparing for an influx of cargo shorts-wearing jetski salesmen asking where the nearest Starbucks is. For these tourists, for the rich Harvard grads looking for work in our ‘highly-skilled’ sectors and for billionaires seeking a place to hunker down while the world burns, Jacinda Ardern asks, “have you considered New Zealand™?”

5. Most importantly: New Zealand™ is the home of Lord of the Rings

It wouldn’t be a New Zealand branding exercise without reference to that beloved franchise that we just can’t shake.

I am a politician from Morrinsville. As a point of geographic reference, it's right next to Hobbiton. I'm not actually joking.

Did you really think we were done with this? Just because there hasn’t been a good Hobbit movie in 20 years? Give it another couple of decades. After one season of the new Amazon show, Jeff Bezos himself is going to appear in every Air New Zealand safety video! He’s gonna play an ogre or something. It’s true, Stuart Nash says that Bezos is moving to Wanaka and they’re like best friends.

Is this the way we want the world to see us?

Nabilah Husna Binte Abdul Rahman is a Malay-Muslim writer and artist from Singapore, living in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. She is doing her PhD at Te Herenga Waka, which looks into Asian solidarities with tangata whenua, and their support of Te Tiriti justice and tino rangatiratanga and mana motuhake movements. In her spare time, she paints and complains about the lack of nasi padang in town.

Jimmy Lanyard is an unexceptional Pākehā public servant from Te Whanganui-a-Tara. While he is not doing Borat impressions for the graduate advisors, he enjoys matching his sneakers with his Barkers suit, drinking almond flat whites and watching supercuts of Air New Zealand safety videos.

Choose New Zealand: Jacinda Ardern’s Harvard Address and the Branding of New Zealand™