Race‐centred me‐searching for racialised asian researchers in Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

‘Me-search’, or the intentional process of exploring one's positionality, is increasingly recognised as foundational to decolonising and anti-racist research. Yet in Aotearoa New Zealand, racialised Asian researchers have few praxis-oriented resources that speak to our liminal positioning within Eurocentric academic institutions and that recognise both our responsibilities to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and to the communities we research with and belong to. Through a series of tuakana–teina conversations, six Asian academic researchers engaged with questions structured around the 4Rs: racialisation, restructuring, relationality and reflexivity. We present narrative summaries that foreground context, tensions and praxis, demonstrating what me-search can feel like in practice: iterative, relational and responsive to shifting responsibilities. Key threads for the conversations included trust and ‘relationships first’ approaches, refusing inclusion as ‘diversity’ without Te Tiriti accountability; naming whiteness and accounting for privilege and complicity in knowledge production; and building from cultural selves, ancestors and Asian philosophies while resisting the homogenisation of ‘Asian’. We offer the 4Rs as a flexible starting point that invites adaptation, critique and ongoing collective learning with scholars, policy colleagues and communities, towards accountable, race-centred research practices.