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.