I'll have to agree with Tze Ming on this one. The purpose of putting 'New Zealand European' on the census form is to indicate what your racial background is. It's supposed to be a generalisation, and not goo long ago read'what's your race' (as far as I can remember). I can understand the desire to put your race down as 'New Zealander', and there is an argument that 'New Zealander' is a different category to 'European', but really it smacks of a particular narrowness you only get in petty nationalists.
But hey, if it makes you feel like you're the shizzle to try and get a new category added, then have at. Like I give a hoot.
I'm not caring because New Zealander is a nationality and an ethnicity all kind of bundled into one, and one that's gradually finding its feet over time. And the interesting thing about nationality is that you can't really conclusively define it except via rubber-stamping.
What I mean by that is that the essence of what it is to be a New Zealander is beyond definition. I'm sure you're all bored with me telling you about how if you try to define a nationality you'll always get a few people who are obviously nationals, but still just don't fit the mould. Not all New Zealanders like rugby for example. That probably makes them horses hoofs, but that's just the way it is, aeh maaaaaate?
The main marker of a nation is a kind of mutual recognition of belonging, although this mutual recognition has to be backed up with something tangible. All liking a particular sport usually doesn't cut it as a stand-alone marker, but the culture that surrounds that sport and its supporters do contribute to nationality. People who follow the sport will all be able to communicate in and around the game, and that makes them a community.
Nations are much the same. So when you say, "I'm a New Zealander" you're probably saying it with something cultural and something tangible to back it up, and a community of like-minded individuals who think themselves the same. But more importantly, you'll also have the rubber-stamping to accompany it. A passport is a good example.
What we can glean from this is that the people writing 'New Zealander' on their census forms are likely to be both ethnically and formally 'New Zealanders'. The ethnic dimension is probably shallow relative to older cultures like those of Western Europe, the Far East, Africa etc., but it's not because it's a new nation. There's a fair bit of argument in the academic literature that all nations are less than 150 or 200 years old.
I'll save you the boring details. In a nutshell it's because our ethnicity just hasn't worked itself out properly yet.
New Zealander is an ethnicity then. But writing it on your census is a bit stupid because it's not what they're asking for, they want your racial background.
Ah well. It's not as stupid as writing 'Jedi' as your religion.
But I can't help it.
The truth of the matter is that I received more wisdom from the first three films than I did from any visits to Sunday School. I think the second three films are a bit like the New Testament though, an unnecessary sequel to a perfectly good set of stories.
But here are a few things I learned so you get the idea:
Whiney bastards don't get the girl.
Sometimes great heroes look like frogs with Spock ears.
Believe in yourself.
Never trust 'the man', he'll call in favours you don't owe.
Money will sometimes turn Wookie into Ewok.
Being closeted causes social disfunction and dependency, even in robots.
Do anything for your friends, one day they'll save your arse.
Inside every black man is a white man waiting to get out, seemingly.
The universe is populated by muppets.
How can a man go wrong with a set of moral markers like that?