ABSTRACT. Māori and Indigenous studies are tasked with comprehending colonisation, global powers and moving beyond its unfolding calamities. The very existence of Māori has been threatened since European arrival, but the established category throws into question what forces give it shape. I conceptualise the problem of identity in the ‘question of Māoriness,’ which is symptomatic of the imposition of western thought on Māori being. These matters are approached from the critique of fragmentation, a metaphysical displacement, appearing in the problem of identity and limiting Māori being. These issues will resonate with Māori and Indigenous peoples who are overexposed to capitalist and colonial forces. Importantly, this is the shared nemesis of unlikely allies, Deleuze and Guattari. Encountering Deleuzian difference unsettles hierarchical and prescriptive notions of identity, benefiting Māori existence. Examining the simulacrum and negative difference in gender, sexuality and queer identities assists in the problematisation of fixed categories. Beyond negative difference lays the affirmative and indeterminant variations. While beneficial to the question of Māoriness, Māori scholars may find a limit in new materialism’s desire for relationality with the world because it remains premised on another metaphysics. These issues point to further work for the articulation of fragmentation and an affirmative Māori metaphysics.

Keywords: Māori; Indigenous; Deleuze; difference; identity; fragmentation

How to cite: Palmer, S. (2025). A Māori encounter with Deleuzian difference, fragmentation and the problem of identity. Knowledge Cultures, 13(3), 85–113. https://doi.org/10.22381/kc13320257

Received October 6, 2025 • Received in revised form November 27, 2025
Accepted November 27, 2025 • Available online December 1, 2025