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In reference to the noun Kiwi, which designates a New Zealander, the noun Kiwiness designates:
– the quality or fact of being from New Zealand;
– characteristics regarded as typical of New Zealand or New Zealanders.
This noun occurs, for example, in the following two texts:
1-: In a review of Starstruck, a BBC television series about Jessie, a New Zealander living in London, written by the New Zealand comedians Rose Matafeo and Alice Snedden—review by Molly Codyre, a New Zealander, published in The Independent (London, England) of Sunday 13th February 2022 [page 30]:
It is a moment of striking vulnerability in a TV show that tends to show its Kiwi-ism through our affinity for self-deprecating jokes and tendency to overshare with near strangers. This is perhaps best characterised by co-writer Alice Snedden’s deadpan character Amelia. In season two she rocks up to a party with a bag of beers. “Fuckin’ hell, look at this place” she chimes in a heavy Kiwi accent. “Yes, but lower your voice,” says Jessie’s English housemate Kate […]. This interaction has been replicated so many times throughout my life in London—my at times brash Kiwiness starkly contrasting with the traditional attitude of a Brit.
2-: In Queenstown camping grounds to be leased to Australian company, published by RNZ (Radio New Zealand) on Wednesday 10th May 2023:
There are concerns the sale of leases for five Queenstown Lakes camping grounds to an Australian group may spell the end to the Kiwi camping experience at the sites.
[…]
Those concerns were echoed by other Glendhu Bay campers, who did not want to see the ownership of the leases go offshore.
“Not necessarily just Australia, but any overseas entity. I think it will just take away the Kiwiness of camping there,” one woman, who did not want to be identified, told RNZ.
These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of the noun Kiwiness that I have found:
1-: From Maoris ‘Must Review Role In Integration’, an account of a public address on “What does racial integration really mean?”, delivered at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, on Wednesday 6th September 1967, by Eugene Leonard Hartley (born Eugene Leonard Horowitz – 1912–2002), Professor of Psychology at the City College, City University, New York—account published in The Press (Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand) of Thursday 7th September 1967 [page 12, column 3]:
Within the home community no specific “Kiwi role” was aroused. A person might be a Canterbury man, a grocer, or whatever role was evoked within the local group.
When confronted overtly or symbolically with another nationality, however, “Kiwiness” was evoked and certain symbols were established as being identified with the nation as a whole.
2-: From an edited version of the above-mentioned public address, written in collaboration with Richard Thompson, Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Canterbury, published under the title Racial Integration and Role Differentiation in The Journal of the Polynesian Society (University of Auckland) [Vol. 76, No. 4, December 1967, page 440]:
While New Zealanders are in their home communities, surrounded by neighbours, reading or hearing local news, no Kiwi role is aroused. They are, rather, Canterbury men, greengrocers, or whatever role might be evoked within the common group. When, however, overtly or symbolically, another nationality is confronted, Kiwiness is evoked. When one travels overseas one is much more the Kiwi than while at home.
In the course of socialisation into our respective societies, certain symbols are established as being identified with the nation as a whole and one learns the response appropriate to a citizen of the nation. So it is that one is cast into a Kiwiness by the trooping of the colour and the strains of “God Save the Queen”, while others respond equivalently to different flags and different anthems. Sometimes comparable responses will develop from some special symbol or picture or turn of phrase (as in reading the poem that includes the line, “This is my own, my native land”) or seeing sone awe-inspiring landscapes. But for the most part, the feeling of being Kiwi arises when the “we” of New Zealand is entering into a transaction with some outsider, some alien “they”.
3-: From a review of Super Pig (London: Macdonald and Jane’s Ltd, 1976), by the British author, actor, cartoonist and journalist William Rushton (1937-1996)—review by John Collins, published in The Press (Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand) of Saturday 4th June 1977 [page 15, column 7]:
It traces the solo man (the pig, in women’s eyes, Rushton claims) from the first stirring of his begummed eyelid, and the first blind, throbbing, groping for the first fag, to the last, drunken rites before collapsing in the stained sweater bearing the brown imprint of an overheated iron on to the unmade bed.
[…]
[…] That, surely, should appeal to the physical man so important, regrettably, to Kiwiness.
4-: From a review of the McPhail & Gadsby television show—review by John Collins, published in The Press (Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand) of Friday 18th July 1980 [page 9, column 3]—the New Zealand television comedy series A Week of It (1977 to 1979) launched the career of the New Zealand comedians David McPhail (1945-2021) and Jon Gadsby (1953-2015):
The McPhail/Gadsby show has abandoned the safety of stock local characters—well, almost—and manages to float without the device of playing up its Kiwiness to an audience starved until “A Week of It” of jokes about their own country.
5-: From enzed faves, published in Rip It Up (Auckland, Auckland Region, New Zealand) of November 1985 [page 28, column 2]:
[Mark Everton]: I’m a fan of New Zealand music. I don’t mind admitting it and I’ve a feeling I’m not alone. For ages though I made excuses, was it just some sort of misplaced patriotic zeal? Was it pretentious to think New Zealand music spoke to me with my voice? And what was the thread that tied all authentic local music together and made it so obviously different?
Well, apart from the indefinable “kiwiness” of it all, I would have to say the difference lies in the strength of the songs and the reason for their existence.
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