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In 1840, English officials on behalf of the British crown signed the Treaty of Waitangi—also known as Te Tiriti o Waitangi—with the Indigenous Māori population, affirming Māori sovereignty and guaranteeing their collective rights to the country’s land and resources. Since the 1700s, English settlers had been arriving in Aotearoa (the Māori name for New Zealand) to capitalize on the seal and whale trade. As the number of settlers increased, reports flowed back to Britain of general lawlessness and dubious private land deals, and the crown was forced to consider how best to control its citizens. A treaty with the Māori, officials decided, was the way to do so. The agreement, which established the basis for the relationship between the Māori and the British, is commonly cited as a shining example of how a treaty can recognize and protect Indigenous peoples’ rights by curtailing the reach of the state. But does te Tiriti live up to its sterling reputation? The answer, of course, is complicated.

Communities of colour are racialised and oppressed differentially by settler colonial states (Saranillio, 2013), yet the discourse of diversity and inclusion that dominates state interactions with communities of colour tends to conflate marginalised groups as equivalent and interchangeable to the detriment of intergroup relations. An approach to community building that recognises racial difference in general and the irreducibility of indigeneity in particular is needed if racialised communities are to create solidarities for transformative change. We engage Indigenous and settler colonial theories to address these imperatives, while noting the distinct character of these frameworks. In particular, we seek to highlight the specificity of indigeneity in settler colonial contexts, such as Aotearoa New Zealand, and to generate a model for relationship building that is not founded on settler colonial ideologies, by drawing on Indigenous concepts. Through thematic analysis of interviews with Māori community leaders, we explore Māori-–tauiwi (settler) of colour (ToC) relations. The results of our qualitative analysis provide evidence for Māori–ToC relations that are consistent with whanaungatanga (good relationships characterised as family-like, based on similar experiences, and bound in conditional solidarity; see Benton, Frame, and Meredith, 2013). Furthermore, we identify the following four aspects of whakawhanaungatanga (relationship building): positioning, power sharing, dialogue and cultural practice. Thus, we suggest whakawhanaungatanga as a Māori approach to relationship building with the potential to generate Indigenous–settler of colour solidarities towards transformative change.

Numerous researchers have posited links between ethnic identity and psychological wellbeing (Phinney, 1992; Martinez & Dukes, 1997; Roberts, Phinney, Masse, Chen, Robers, & Romero, 1999; Houkamau & Sibley, 2011), and Māori cultural interventions have been suggested as a means of promoting a range of positive outcomes (e.g. M. Durie, 1998; Durie, 2003b; Lawson-Te Aho, 1998). However, longitudinal evidence of causal pathways between Māori ethnic identity and psychological wellbeing remains scarce, and evidence of the positive impacts of cultural interventions is not well documented. The present thesis investigates Māori identity development in the context of State secondary schools, and explores the relationships between Māori cultural engagement, Māori identity, and psychological wellbeing. A methodology that incorporates both mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) and Western scientific knowledge bases and research methods was applied. Interviews were held with Māori students and their whānau (families) at a State secondary school where a community-driven initiative to improve Māori student outcomes took place. Thematic analysis was used to generate Te Korowai Aroha Framework, outlining how Māori cultural initiatives can enable schools to fulfil their duty of care and meet Māori community needs by affirming individuals‟ cultural identity and agency, by building relationships based on mutual respect, and by working collaboratively within the school and with external services providers. Thematic analysis of these interviews was also conducted to generate The Pōwhiri Identity Negotiation Framework. The pōwhiri (formal welcome), in which Māori creation narratives are ritually re-enacted, is used as a metaphor for Māori identity negotiation. The stages of creation Te Kore, Te Pō, Te Whaiao, and Te Ao Marama are used to describe, respectively: those who were yet to display interest in Māori cultural identities; those who were interested in developing their Māori identities; those who were actively exploring their Māori identities; and those who felt secure in their Māori identities. Quantitative longitudinal survey data from over 300 Māori adolescents in the Youth Connectedness Project was then analysed. Structural Equation Modelling revealed that Māori cultural engagement positively predicted Māori ethnic identity, and that Māori ethnic identity positively predicted psychological wellbeing, in support of hypotheses. In addition, Hierarchical Linear Modelling revealed that the higher a school‟s level of Māori cultural promotion, the higher the ethnic identity of its students was likely to be. The results of this thesis demonstrate the impact of school cultural environments on individual identity development, and provide evidence that cultural engagement initiatives can enhance Māori identities, which in turn can increase psychological wellbeing. The results from the studies presented in this thesis are incorporated into Te Pītau o te Tuakiri framework, outlining how Māori identities can be nurtured, and the results are also used to offer guidelines for individuals wishing to become more engaged in Māori culture, and institutions wishing to become more responsive to Māori communities. These findings are used to challenge educators and policy makers to ensure schools and other State institutions support Māori cultural expression and affirm Māori identities.

This paper theorizes how knowledge of indigenous tribal epistemologies was made ‘knowable’ through Enlightenment rationalism in an early colonial context. Specifically, the paper determines how and what knowledge of Mäori tribal physical activities was interpreted and authenticated through early travellers' tales and missionaries’ accounts in New Zealand. The central thesis argues that what was established as authentic and truthful aligned with Enlightenment rationalism, while those Mäori physical practices incomprehensible to Western understandings were deemed inauthentic and, consequently, were obscured and/or discarded. Throughout, the article theorizes the translation of knowledge into meaningful Western discourses and how these translations came to be crystallized in the colonial imagination.

This article explains that the concept of citizenship for Maori in New Zealand has evolved. The 'Native Rights Act 1865' declared all Maori to be subjects of the Crown. This implication then justified the confiscation of lands in the 1860s from those Maori deemed to be disloyal to the Crown. By the beginning of the twentieth century, politicians began to use the concept of citizenship to force Maori to fight in World War I. In the mid-twentieth century, the Maori politician Apirana Ngata used the term 'price of citizenship' to gain social and political rights for all Maori, as a result of the efforts of Maori soldiers fighting as New Zealand citizens in World War II.

In 2010, the Electoral (Disqualification of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Bill marked a significant change in prisoner voting rights policies in New Zealand, disenfranchising all prisoners regardless of sentence length. A decade later in 2020, the Electoral (Registration of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Bill re-enfranchised prisoners serving sentences of less than three years. Over this time, a Waitangi Tribunal Inquiry and a number of Māori politicians and public figures highlighted the disproportionate effects of prisoner disenfranchisement for Māori given over-representation of Māori in the prison population. However, less attention has focused on the specific effects of disenfranchisement for wāhine Māori (Māori women) in prison, and what this reflects about the relationship between wāhine Māori and the state. While women make up a significantly smaller percentage of the general prison population than men, wāhine Māori made up 61% of the women’s prison population in 2021 (Office of the Inspectorate, 2021). Additionally, wāhine Māori had a drastically different experience of colonisation to tāne Māori (Māori men). Colonial actions worked to destroy traditional Māori social organisation, which disrupted the balance between men and women and confined wāhine Māori to a social position that falls behind Pākehā men and women and Māori men. This thesis takes a Māori-centred, Mana Wahine lens to draw on the content of interviews with key informants and analysis of parliamentary readings of the 2010 and 2020 bills in order to explore how prisoner disenfranchisement in the 21st century reflects broader patterns regarding the treatment of wāhine Māori by the state. Disenfranchisement is likely to uniquely affect wāhine Māori due to their importance in te ao Māori as nurturers, the managers of households, and their centrality to the intergenerational transfer of knowledge. This not only presents barriers to voting and re-enrolment on the electoral roll post-release from prison, but also serves to practically disenfranchise the whānau and communities that wāhine Māori belong to. The lack of consideration of the needs and experiences of wāhine Māori in state discussions of prisoner voting rights mirrors the ongoing invisibility of wāhine Māori in state policy. The state has framed prisoner voting rights around male and tāne Māori norms, which cannot account for wāhine Māori. Moving forward, if prisoner voting rights policies are revisited in the future, an intersectional approach must be taken that effectively addresses the needs of wāhine Māori.

The State of Maori Rights brings together a set of articles written between 1994 and 2009. It places on record the Maori view of events and issues that took place over these years, issues that have been more typically reported to the general public from a 'mainstream' media perspective. It is an important documentation of these fifteen years of New Zealand history, recording the assertion of Maori rights as the indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand, focusing on Maori issues and experiences and written from a Maori perspective.

"This book describes the iwi of Ngāti Kahu through the traditions and histories of each of the sixteen hapū, told by kuia and kaumātua and kept alive for future generations. These include histories of poverty, deprivation and marginalisation at the hands of the Crown, and loss of lands of the iwi. The book examines the range of techniques used by the Crown to justify its actions and the way these laid the groundwork for continuing injustices. The remedies needed to redress these injustices and achieve reconciliation of Ngāti Kahu and the Crown are set out. These include constitutional change to achieve the restoration of political, social and economic well-being to Ngāti Kahu, Crown relinquishment of all Ngāti Kahu lands to their rightful owners and payment of sufficient compensation to ensure no further Treaty of Waitangi claims. This history of Ngāti Kahu details the range of Crown actions against Ngāti Kahu to the current day, the effects of these actions on the people of Ngāti Kahu and the concerted and continuing efforts by Ngāti Kahu for remedies and reconciliation with the Crown"--Publisher information.

Governments in New Zealand have legislated a large number of settlements extinguishing many hundreds of claims taken by Māori against the Crown for breaches of the country’s founding document, Te Tiriti o Waitangi. They portray settlements as a great success for Māori and the Crown. Māori disagree. Settlements are government-determined and imposed on Māori using a smoke and mirrors approach that masks successive governments’ true intentions: to claw back Māori legal rights; to extinguish all claims; and to maintain White control over Māori. In short, to uphold the Doctrine of Discovery in further breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Māori claimants and negotiators report being enticed into the process by false promises only to become traumatised and disenchanted. Yet many take a pragmatic stance and sign settlements, making the best they can out of a bad deal that goes nowhere near compensating for their actual loss. They know that despite what legislation may say, the settlements are not full, not fair and not final and that, like all previous settlements, they will be revisited. They also know that unless fundamental changes are made to the constitutional makeup of the country, there is no prospect of justice and reconciliation for Māori.

This article considers research conducted on the impact of the Crown’s treaty claims settlement policy on Māori in New Zealand. It provides a brief background to the Treaty of Waitangi and the subsequent British colonisation process that relied on the Doctrine of Discovery in breach of the treaty. It outlines how colonisation dispossessed Māori of 95 percent of their lands and resources, usurped Māori power and authority and left them in a state of poverty, deprivation and marginalisation while procuring considerable wealth, prosperity and privilege for British settlers. The work of the Waitangi Tribunal, the commission of inquiry set up to investigate those breaches, is considered, as is the Crown’s reaction to the 1987 Lands case in developing its treaty claims settlement policy. The Crown unilaterally imposed the policy despite vehement opposition from Māori. Since 1992, it has legislated more than seventy ‘settlements’. The research shows that overall, the process has traumatised claimants, divided their communities, and returned on average less than one percent of their stolen lands. Proposals for constitutional transformation have drawn widespread support from Māori as a solution to British colonisation. United Nations treaty-monitoring bodies have recommended that the government discuss this with Māori

Māori leaders in New Zealand continue the battle to end British colonisation. The aim is to restore the balance between Māori and the Crown guaranteed in the treaty that Māori and the British Crown agreed to in 1840 so that we can live in peace and harmony. Early European visitors subjected our ancestors to numerous atrocities. Relying on the Doctrine of Discovery, they illegitimately usurped our power and dispossessed us, leaving us in a state of poverty, deprivation and marginalisation. They fabricated myths to justify their criminal activities, set up an illegitimate parliament with unfettered powers, passed laws legalising their crimes and then covered it up with amnesia. They established the Waitangi Tribunal in 1975 to inquire into breaches of the treaty, not realising that it would dismantle the myths and look beneath the amnesia. Governments then instigated the ‘treaty claims settlement’ process to extinguish all Māori claims, remove Māori rights and entrench colonisation. Research undertaken has shown that Māori loathe this process and do not accept that settlements are full and final. Research on constitutional transformation has identified a possible solution. The first step towards that goal involves implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

For more than half a century, Keith Sorrenson - one of New Zealand's leading historians and himself of mixed Maori and Pakeha descent - has dived deeper than anyone into the story of two peoples in New Zealand. In this new book, Sorrenson brings together his major writing from the last 56 years into a powerful whole, covering topics from the origins of Maori (and Pakeha ideas about those origins), through land purchases and the King Movement of the nineteenth century, and on to twentieth-century politics and the new history of the Waitangi Tribunal.