A Place to Stand: Life Writing and an Immigrant’s Journey Towards Belonging

Abstract

Our globalized world is marked by transience and displacement. Narratives of colonization, war, and migration collide and mingle as individuals and communities are uprooted and ties with treasured people and places are severed. I inhabit one such narrative: a migrant navigating the interplay of belonging and unbelonging, and the complexities of cultural negotiation in a land colonized by my ancestors. While this article stands independently, it is informed by my doctoral research which engaged with the Māori concepts of tūrangawaewae [a place to stand] and whakapapa [genealogy] and my ongoing autoethnographic inquiry into immigrant identity, place, and postcolonial consciousness. The poems embedded throughout the text serve not only as accessible data but also as a structuring device — offering insight into the affective dimensions of migration and the impact of disrupted identity on self and place. The article contributes to the field of life writing by foregrounding creative expression as a valid and powerful mode of scholarly reflection, and by inviting readers into a storied exploration of how interrogating and writing about my past and my migration experience has profoundly shaped my self-concept and authorial voice. Ultimately, I discovered that writing itself can become a metaphorical tūrangawaewae: a place of safety, belonging, and return. Writing gives me a place to stand — but not stand still.