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This article shares lessons for spatial governance in Aotearoa New Zealand in the context of the Treaty of Waitangi. It reports on research into co-creation pathways that supported bicultural spatial governance inclusive of whānau and local communities in the Waimakariri and Rotorua Districts. In alignment with three Treaty principles, local tikanga, unique to the two places, informed the methodological framework for bicultural spatial governance. Despite some commonalities, the two case studies reveal distinctive perspectives that resonate differently across Aotearoa New Zealand, underscoring the importance of co-creation for biculturalism. We consider the implications for biculturalism across a range of spatial contexts and for debates about decolonising governance.

This editorial introduction outlines the political and intellectual territory for a Special Issue on Tikanga rua: bicultural spatial governance in Aotearoa New Zealand. The term ‘spatial governance’ refers to deliberative systems with an impact on social and spatial outcomes, including environmental management, town planning, urban design and city-making. Authentic tikanga rua bicultural spatial governance delivers processes and outcomes aligned with the perspectives, values and knowledge of both tangata whenua (people of the land) and tangata Tiriti (people of the Treaty). The research discussed in the Special Issue traverses multiple geographies and contexts and demonstrates the manifold possibilities for biculturalism in contemporary spatial governance. This introduction summarises the contents of each of the substantive papers and provides a Māori-English glossary to assist readers with the key terms used within the issue.

In Aotearoa New Zealand, the arrival of imperial ideologies in the 19th century led to devastating land-loss and cultural marginalisation for M?ori at the hands of settlers and successive governments. This article examines the damaging effects of a Crown-imposed treaty claims settlement system designed to address injustices inflicted on M?ori. Interview data from a Taranaki-based (a West Coast region, central North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand) hap? (sub-tribe) that engaged with this system foreground the adversarial nature of this system and its continuation of trauma. We argue that, while the process provides voice to M?ori, it does so within a paradigm that pits kin-groups against each other, unjustly limits redress and fails to resolve tension. A tikanga framing provides insights into how tensions are set up and ways tikanga (underlying values and principles that guide practice) can be used outside the redress system to seek healing and resolution.

In the past two decades, the terms 'kaupapa Maori' and 'matauranga Maori' have come to prominence in Maori education and research circles. They appear in a wide variety of contexts to articulate and advance certain aspects of Maori education and development. The two terms are generally utilised to support activities designed to generate benefits for Maori and to give expression to Maori ways of doing things, aspects of Maori knowledge and the Maori world view. Interestingly, there are a number of perspectives on the two terms and whilst meanings for both overlap, they are not synonymous. In this article, I present my view of the meaning of kaupapa Maori and matauranga Maori. My background is as a researcher of matauranga Maori, hence my views are presented from this perspective.

<em>Gale</em> Academic OneFile includes KIA TAWHARAUTIA TE MATAURANGA MAORI: DECOLONISING THE I by Eru Kapa-Kingi. Click to explore.

Contemporary management practices have artificially confined (strangled) river systems in Aotearoa New Zealand to support intensified land use in riparian areas. These practices work against nature, diminishing the functionality and biodiversity values of living rivers, and associated socio-cultural relations with rivers. River confinement can accentuate flood risk by promoting development in vulnerable locations and limiting the flexibility to adapt to changing climate, prospectively accentuating future disasters. To date, uptake of space-to-move management interventions that seek to address such shortcomings is yet to happen in Aotearoa New Zealand. This is despite the fact that such practices directly align with Māori (indigenous) conceptualizations of rivers as indivisible, living entities. Treaty of Waitangi obligations that assert Māori rights alongside colonial rights of a settler society provide an additional driver for uptake of space-to-move initiatives. This article outlines a biophysical prioritization framework to support the development and roll out of space-to-move interventions in ways that work with the character, behavior, condition, and evolutionary trajectory (recovery potential) of each river system in Aotearoa. This article is categorized under: Water and Life > Conservation, Management, and Awareness Science of Water > Water and Environmental Change

Drawing on the work of Matike Mai Aotearoa: The Independent Iwi Working Group on Constitutional Transformation (the Working Group), this article argues that there is an evolving New Zealand constitutionalism, one that offers a constitutional understanding grounded in the Māori constitutional system. The article opens with a descriptive analysis of the Māori constitutional system, explains the key features of New Zealand’s existing constitution and concludes with an argument that the existing constitution can evolve – and, through the political process, ought to evolve – according to the constitutional models that the Working Group recommends. This article deploys legal research methods, primarily doctrinal research and applied doctrinal research.1

In this article, I outline the existing legislative options available and rationale for M?ori representation in local government. I suggest that the arguments and rationale against M?ori representation have been exacerbated by a lack of clarity around local government?s duties and obligations stemming from the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. In the second part of this article, I explore more recent arguments by M?ori for representation and involvement in local government decision-making on the basis of being mana whenua, which means to have territorial authority and power associated with the possession and occupation of tribal land. This argument foregrounds specific iwi (tribes) as holding territorial authority and therefore rights to representation and involvement in decision-making sourced in tikanga M?ori (M?ori law), over and above other M?ori who live in that area. I examine in detail the Rotorua District Council?s establishment of the Te Arawa Partnership Board in 2015 and argue that this Board and its first election results provide unique insights into the relationship between Te Arawa people living in and outside the district and has implications for broader conversations about the rights of M?ori living away from their tribal areas.

In response to widespread water quality and quantity issues, the New Zealand Government has recently embarked on a number of comprehensive freshwater management reforms, developing a raft of national discussion and policy documents such as "Freshwater Reform 2013 and Beyond" and a National Policy Statement for freshwater management (NPS-FM 2014). Recent resource management reforms and amendments (RMA 2014), based on previous overarching resource management legislation (RMA 1991), set out a new approach and pathway to manage freshwater nationwide. Internationally, there is an increasing trend to engage with indigenous communities for research and collaboration, including indigenous groups as active participants in resource management decision making. What is driving this change toward more engagement and collaboration with indigenous communities is different for each country, and we document the progress and innovation made in this area in New Zealand. The indigenous rights of Māori in New Zealand are stated in the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi and in many forms of New Zealand's legislation. Local and central governments are eager to include local indigenous Māori groups (iwi/hapū) in freshwater management planning processes through meaningful engagement and collaboration. Key to the success of collaborative planning processes for Māori are enduring relationships between local government and Māori, along with adequate resourcing for all partners contributing to the collaborative process. A large number of shared governance and management models for natural resource management have emerged in New Zealand over the past 20 years, and some recent examples are reviewed. We provide some discussion to improve understanding and use of the terms used in these management models such as cogovernance, comanagement, and coplanning, and describe some of the more important frameworks and tools being developed with Māori groups (e.g., iwi/hapū), to strengthen Māori capacity in freshwater management and to support good collaborative process and planning.

Examines two prominent environmental issues – sea level rise and taonga species protection – facing iwi, hapū, Māori and the Crown, exploring the barriers, solutions and positive steps in each area towards a ‘tika transition’ whereby iwi, hapū and Māori (the rangatiratanga sphere) and the Crown (kāwanatanga sphere) exist within distinct and equal political entities, with the rangatiratanga sphere leading and governing tikanga and mātauranga Māori policy and legislation. Source: National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, licensed by the Department of Internal Affairs for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand Licence.

The New Zealand government has been globally praised for its response to Covid-19. Despite the global accolades, little attention has been given to the swift and innovative Māori response to Covid-19. This paper will detail some of this rapid Māori response to Covid-19 in Aotearoa New Zealand and argue the response can be understood as key examples of Māori exercising tino rangatiratanga (self-determination), independent of the government's measures and policies. We suggest that this exploration of tino rangatiratanga during Covid-19 demonstrates central aspects of Māori well-being that move beyond a government focus on statistics as the key measure of well-being and how tikanga Māori (Māori values) are being used to develop successful responses to the global pandemic.