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This thesis explores the contemporary political rationality and government mechanisms that develop and impact upon educational policy for Maori. In engaging in a critique of political ideology and operational exposition, this thesis examines and discloses the mechanisms and rationalities of government in New Zealand through state policy theory, gender, race and ethnic writings, critical theory and theories of difference. Of significance to this work is the incorporation of Kaupapa Maori theory, which provides a traditional and contemporary insight into Maori views and praxis of emancipation. In realising the central interest and concern of Maori for real and effective intervention to address the crisis of schooling for Maori, analysis in this thesis examines the historical nature of Maori educational policy and critiques the contemporary educational political frameworks of the New Zealand Labour government. Furthermore, this research also examines government official’s perspectives in discussing the primary contemporary political mechanisms and rationalities that operate in controlling and developing educational policy for Maori. It is argued, that although these contemporary policy frameworks, rationalities and mechanisms may appear to be vastly different from historical colonisation and assimilation practices, they are informed by the same underlying structures and are intersected by similar tendencies and movements. In disclosing the perpetuating ethos of state Pakeha dominant interests and the absence of structural and cultural reform from within political educational policy development for Maori, this thesis argues that state initiatives in the new millennium, under the guise of transformation, commitment and hope still remain ineffective and oppressive for Maori.

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.

Though not acknowledged as a realm heavy with indigenous participation, punk culture has the potential to provide solidarity for the indigenous people it attracts. In this study, I explore how indigeneity is being expressed in Aotearoa punk culture by indigenous punks. Through interviews, participants articulated that punk culture has provided an alternative means of belonging in contemporary and diasporic settings that have necessitated a broadening of ways in which to find and reclaim indigeneity. Though punk culture cannot be seen as a realm that is imbedded with indigenous sentiment, participants suggest that its egalitarian philosophies and ethos of freedom and autonomy are conversant to indigenous experiences and desires that make it a potential port of solidarity for indigenous punks.

The Maori Land Court in the 1960s and 1970s was a Court responsible for settling issues over the ownership, use and disposal of various land held by Maori. In 1980, a Royal Commission that examined the Maori Land Court made a number of administrative recommendations but it did not recommend dramatic reform of the Court. The Maori Land Court was to continue without major changes in format and jurisdiction. This thesis will show that the Court had to pragmatically and practically navigate relationships that Maori had with their land and with their whanaunga (relatives) and all the social circumstances that that entailed. The thesis uses autoethnographic and micro-history techniques to tell a story about the Court from a Maori Studies perspective. It employs Maori cultural concepts such as whiinau (family), whakapapa (genealogy) and whenua (land) to give a perspective of the Court from a Maori worldview. The thesis therefore contains a lot of biographical material to show that the Court was a social institution that was linked to Maori and their historical and contemporary relationships to the land as well as the history of New Zealand.

This thesis aims to provide an understanding of the nature of tribes and tribalisation in Maori society that is not readily available from secondary sources. It is an attempt to move out of the fog created by the intense politicisation that surrounds definitions and perceptions of the tribe, which in turn have created a bewildering maze of issues and demands. For example social change and development among Maori - and by implication the tribe - has been characterised variously as renaissance (Durie 1998), neo tribalism (Rata 2000), the reification of culture (Hansen 1989, van Meijl 1996), and political struggle (Walker 1990). These conceptualisations have not taken into account the fact that the tribe as the fundamental social organisation of Maori society and the tribe as the fundamental essence of Maori identity diverged as the twentieth century progressed. This thesis offers an alternative view of social change based on a study of the changing perceptions of the tribe throughout the twentieth century. The underlying premise is that perceptions of the tribe evolved according to a range of endogenous and exogenous social and political influences. This position is juxtaposed against the proposition that the tribe is, and can be understood simply from observation of communities, past and present. Throughout the twentieth century the tribe's status as the primary organising force changed. In the early stages of the century the tribe was the primary, as well as the fundamental, form of Maori social organisation and identity. As the century progressed and Maori became progressively integrated into the wider New Zealand society, alternative forms of association became available to Maori. The tribe remained the fundamental source of identity: it was, however, no longer the primary social grouping for many Maori. That is, the majority of Maori claimed affiliation to a tribe but did not live and work in a tribal context. It is argued in this thesis that existing perceptions of the tribe have taken into account only the former, that the tribe was the fundamental expression of Maori kinship and identity and have ignored the reality that the tribe was no longer the most common and influential organizing force of Maori social organisation. It is also argued that these perceptions have been formed through three sets of interacting agency: Maori, government and scholarship. Maori understandings of the tribe were primarily sourced in life circumstances, in understandings of a society with a range of kinship inter and intra relationships that are encapsulated in traditional forms of association, namely iwi, whanau and hapu. However, what was not widely understood is that the influence of government through its Maori policies and its fostering of academic scholarship through research publications and advocacy, have had formative, descriptive and prescriptive influences on the tribe. This ongoing process has resulted in an interplay of categorical definitions and adjustments and strategic developments. Understanding conceptions and perceptions of the tribe are very pertinent, not only to Maori, but also to New Zealand as a whole. The tribe dominates notions of Maori identity as well as Maori political and social organisation. Since Maori constitute 15% of the total population of New Zealand, any research that assists in understanding the tribe assists in understanding New Zealand society. The tribe is also an integral part of Treaty-centred politics, and, therefore, a key plank of nation-building within New Zealand. The tribe as an autonomous polity had became a contested site in the late twentieth century, to the extent that definitional disputes disrupted and threatened to derail attempts by government and tribal leaders to arrive at Treaty settlements. Understandings and misunderstandings of the tribe therefore have ramifications for race relations, and the Maori quest for self-determination, as well as for republicanism, constitutionalism and democracy as understood and practiced in New Zealand. This thesis argues: 1. That perceptions and conceptions of the tribe were formed through the interlocking agencies of Maori, scholarship and government. 2. That the key to understanding the tribe and tribalisation in Maori society in the twentieth century is the acceptance that the tribe as the basis of identity and the tribe as the basis community organisation diverged as the century progressed. 3. That tribal affiliation remained central to understandings of Maori identity in spite of major societal changes that they experienced during the twentieth century, 4. That in the latter part of the twentieth century that movement to revitalise the tribe developed into an ideology of retribalisation that successfully introduced a prescribed form of tribe, a development that changed the fundamental nature of tribes and tribalisation among Maori.

This thesis investigates the evolving natural resource management and governance (NRMG) for the Kaipara Moana, in northern Aotearoa. I employ postcolonial theory (PCT) to consider Indigenous peoples’ acts of colonial resistance and tribal resurgence within this specific place and time. I utilise a postcolonial framework comprised of Bhabha’s concepts of ambivalence, mimicry, hybridity and third space as well as Spivak’s concept of strategic essentialism to explore the agency of two Ngāti whātua hapū – Te Uri o Hau and Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara – in initiating and participating in NRMG. These concepts enable the research to explore beyond the binary Indigenous versus non-Indigenous thinking to consider the nuances that occur within hybrid realities. I deconstruct colonial discourse, examining the relations between power, knowledge and agency, to resist and challenge imperialism. By utilising PCT and taking a ‘catchment’ scale approach this research characterises the various discourses at play as a legacy of colonialism and the postcolonial complexities associated with NRMG within, and associated with, this locale. My key research question asks: To what extent does Integrated Catchment Management address mana whenua rights to assert rangatiratanga over their environmental resources and taonga? The research finds that integrated catchment management (ICM) offers potential opportunities for Māori to re-negotiate their role in NRMG, and that iwi-led ICM offers potential for cultural revitalisation and empowerment. However in the case of Kaipara Moana this potential is undermined by a lack of appropriate overarching bicultural governance. The research reveals the ambivalence of the colonial state in the Kaipara and the fragility of its assumed positional superiority within NRM. It is suggested that non-statutory arrangements fail to ensure the commitment necessary for successful outcomes, instead providing a façade for colonial governments to merely appear responsive. New Zealand’s Resource Management Act (1991) is shown to be ineffective in supporting ICM, because cultural imperatives are given less weight than economic imperatives. Small triumphs in Indigenous attempts to reconcile themselves with other local actors in multicultural realities, against a backdrop of ongoing Treaty settlements, and to provide for their own social wellbeing and empowerment, are proven to be real and significant. However, ICM, in and of itself, is unlikely to provide for self-determination to the fullest extent. This research is timely, as current policy reforms such as the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management (NPSFM) (2014) and Treaty of Waitangi settlements are placing greater emphasis on Māori rights and interests in NRMG. The NPSFM also recommends collaborative ICM-based implementation of fresh water management to meet the national level requirements. It is concerning though, that the NPSFM lacks any explicit implementation mechanism to ensure Māori rights and interests are met, meaning there is a similar risk that the NPSFM could also be ineffective. In this context it is highly relevant to be gauging a reallife ICM case and even more so, one that is iwi-led and to which the Treaty partnership is a fundamental principle. Key words: Indigenous rights and interests; Rangatiratanga; Natural resource management; Governance; Integrated catchment management; Ngāti Whātua, Treaty of Waitangi/te Tiriti; Treaty partnership; Multiple stakeholder platforms; bicultural kaupapa; mātauranga Māori Title: For the purposes of this research the Māori title “He waka hourua, he waka eke noa” is interpreted as ‘a waka with two hulls bound by a common kaupapa’. The notion being that while Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples may be willing to get into the same waka and integrate where necessary, for example sharing a vision, objectives and desired outcomes, they also maintain separate hulls to preserve and advance the knowledges, institutions and practices of each culture.

The complexities involved in articulating an ethnic identity as a person of mixed Maori/Pakeha descent are explored in this study. Issues related to establishing a sense of belonging that ties a person to both ethnic groups are examined based on the life narratives of six people of dual Maori/Pakeha descent. What does it mean to be a person of mixed Maori/Pakeha descent in contemporary Aotearoa/New Zealand and in what ways are identities that reflect our dual heritage constructed? I use the term ‘our’ deliberately, because there is a place in the research for my own story as a ‘half-caste’ Maori/Pakeha. Constructing and articulating ethnicity when there has been historical ethnic inter-marriage, as well as ethnic conflict in New Zealand is complex. Negative and stereotypical images are continually being constructed of Maori in a society that aims to assimilate and promote Maori as a homogenous group. It is not only important that Maori articulate and explore their own experiences and realities, but also significant that Maori/Pakeha, as members of both groups, have an opportunity to explore and control their own definitions beyond the constraints set by the dominant groups. The Maori cultural and political renaissance has involved defining Maori in terms of difference from Pakeha/Europeans, but this study explores the overlap – genetic, cultural, and social – between two ethnic groups and provides new insights into the diversity within the Maori ethnic group. The key question guiding the research was: In what ways do people of mixed Maori/Pakeha descent construct and articulate identities that reflect their dual heritage? This study aims to provide insights and understandings about the challenges, issues and benefits associated with being of mixed Maori/Pakeha descent in Aotearoa New Zealand.

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.

This thesis explores the ambivalent nature of Maori political theory as expressed through the writings of Donna Awatere in her publication Maori Sovereignty. Consequently it traces the intellectual history of Maori political thought with a particular emphasis on how Maori have traditionally perceived and advanced their ‘sovereignty’ and its equivalent term, ‘tino rangatiratanga’. The reason for this emphasis is to show how Awatere changed Maori perception of their tino rangatiratanga when she coined the phrase ‘Maori Sovereignty’ in 1982. This work offers an insider’s account into New Zealand’s ‘movements of unity’ that had occurred during the 1970’s and 1980’s based on Awatere’s personal experiences and involvement in various groups. Further it sets out to capture the influences and events that led Awatere to write Maori Sovereignty in order to demonstrate how she had advanced Maori understanding of their tino rangatiratanga. In addition, its attempts to broaden Maori understanding of their tino rangatiratanga by analysing Awatere’s political theory in juxtaposition with global trends, more specifically, the decolonisation and nationalistic processes that occurred in the decades following World War Two. This thesis argues that Maori Sovereignty differed greatly from any other work previously written by both Maori and Pakeha as it challenged existing interpretations of how Maori had perceived and had advanced their tino rangatiratanga. Subsequently, Maori Sovereignty has carved its place as one of New Zealand’s most debated and misunderstood publication to ever come out of the 1980’s and because of this, the lack of proper analysis has given cause for this thesis.

In 1867 the New Zealand Parliament passed legislation to introduce four seats in the House of Representatives for the Māori people, the indigenous tribes of Aotearoa-New Zealand. This thesis investigates the history of how Māori Members of Parliament and Māori political movements have engaged with the Māori seats from 1867 to 2008. It asks a series of questions on the nature of Māori political engagement with the Māori seats: Why were the Māori seats established and what role did Māori communities play in their establishment? Why did Māori choose to engage with parliament and how did they regard the Māori seats? What types of leaders did Māori political movements send to represent them, according to what criteria were those leaders selected, and how did Māori attitudes towards leadership change over time? What did Māori hope to achieve by sending their leaders to parliament, and what ambitions did those leaders carry with them? What have Māori parliamentarians in the Māori seats achieved and what factors have helped or hindered their efforts? How effective have Māori MPs been in representing their constituents in Parliament and by what criteria should we judge their effectiveness? And how has Māori political engagement with the Māori seats changed over time? This thesis also looks to the cultural and social implications of political engagement, asking what impact Māori culture, customs, language and social organisation had on Māori political engagement, and in turn what impact did political engagement with the Māori seats have on Māori culture and society? To answer these questions this thesis discusses the establishment of the Māori seats and the Māori political movements that have engaged with these seats, covering the formation of the seats 1835-1867, the careers of Māori MPs whose efforts and achievements are well established in the existing historical literature 1887-1943, the era of Ngā mātāmua the first wave of Māori MPs 1868-1938, the Rātana-Labour era, 1932-1960, the political career of Matiu Rata 1963-1991, and the formation of the Māori Party 1996-2008. This thesis employs a mix of primary documents, oral interviews and secondary sources to pull together a picture of Māori political engagement with the Māori seats over the past 145 years. It argues that historians have underestimated the role of the Māori MPs and the agency of Māori communities in determining the direction of political engagement. The Māori MPs have been dealt with in a homogenous fashion and written off as ineffective and ill prepared for the rigours of parliament. A closer reading demonstrates that the Māori MPs have made a considerable contribution to New Zealand society in pursuing the ambitions of their constituents, and that the Māori seats play a significant role in the social, cultural and political landscape of the nation.

This study discusses the origins, development and outcomes of the first wave of radical Māori activism between 1968 and 1978. It charts the events of the period and the body of politics, philosophies and strategies employed by Māori activists. It contends that the discipline of history as currently practised becomes problematic when it is applied to the study of non-western cultures, and that scholars undertaking research into Māori histories and communities need to develop a model or metaphor for writing history which is sympathetic to Māori epistemologies and priorities. To this end the text focuses primarily on the words and actions of the activists themselves in order to better understand the way activists conceptualized their world. Activists’ ideas and politics should not just be studied in a ‘race relations model’, that is, in terms of their impact on society and the Pākehā public, and the reaction of the government. Taking activism out of the race relations model and examining it on its own terms throws the movement’s concerns, subtleties and contradictions into sharper relief and provides a deeper understanding of its significance. The thesis is centrally concerned with how activists defined themselves, their actions and their politics, and will argue that Māori activism was implicated in the era’s emerging politics of identity. Māori activism was as much about reforming Māori and Pākehā attitudes towards Māori culture, society and identity as it was about policy and legislative reform. Furthermore, the thesis attempts to explain the influence on, and contribution to, the activist movement of three interrelated contexts: te Ao Māori, the Māori world, Aotearoa, national events, and te Ao Hurihuri, the international setting. It also pays special attention to the gender politics of the era. The work is divided into four chapters. The first covers the Māori world and the ‘big three’ issues of Māori activism: the Treaty of Waitangi, land loss and cultural alienation. The second chapter discusses the national context and the ‘big three’ issues of national politics during the era: apartheid sport, the Vietnam War and class politics. The third chapter deals with the international framework and the influence of global trends on local events, while the fourth chapter details the emergence of the Black women’s movement.

To be Māori is to be political. Our history is filled with political struggles and victories. These struggles, originating from experiences of colonisation and assimilation, have greatly influenced what it is to be Māori today. This thesis explores the relationship between Māori ethnic identity, and political attitudes and outcomes. In this thesis, I present five studies (across four published papers and one full manuscript) which validate the Multidimensional Model of Māori Identity and Cultural Engagement (MMM-ICE2). I focus particular attention on the scale’s Socio- Political Consciousness dimension, and illustrate the links between identity and politics for Māori. The MMM-ICE2 is a seven-dimension scaled designed with Māori, by Māori, and for Māori to measure Māori ethnic identity (Houkamau & Sibley, 2010, 2015a). In the first two studies, I focus on using psychometric techniques to further validate the MMM-ICE2 as a measurement tool. Firstly, I use random intercept exploratory factor analysis to show that the scale is not vulnerable to acquiescent responding (yea-saying; Greaves, Houkamau, & Sibley, 2017). The second study uses multigroup confirmatory factor analysis to illustrate that the MMM-ICE2 shows reasonable measurement equivalence across diverse Māori groups (Greaves, Manuela et al., 2017). In the third study of the thesis, I demonstrate that Māori, broadly defined, are more likely to vote for the political left – the Labour, Green, and New Zealand First parties – over the centre-right National Party (Greaves, Robertson et al., 2017). The results lay the groundwork for two further studies, which demonstrate the construct validity of the Socio-Political Consciousness dimension of the scale by predicting a range of political attitudes and behaviours. Study Four shows that, above and beyond the effects of demographics, Māori enrolled to vote on the Māori electoral roll were higher on the Socio-Political Consciousness and Group Membership Evaluation dimensions (Greaves, Osborne, Houkamau, & Sibley, 2017). Additionally, in Study Five, I demonstrate that higher Socio-Political Consciousness for Māori is related to higher levels of support for Māori rights protests, the left-wing Green Party, and the Māori-issue focussed, Māori and Mana political parties (Greaves, Sengupta et al., 2017). Yet, lower levels of Socio-Political Consciousness were related to higher support for the right-wing National Party. Taken together, these studies show that the MMM-ICE2 scale and the Socio-Political Consciousness dimension can predict important, realworld political outcomes and attitudes for Māori. Finally, I discuss the contributions that the papers in this thesis have made to the literature, and the inevitable limitations of the research. I then provide future research directions for the study of quantitative Māori identity and for Māori political participation more generally. I finish with reflections on the process of writing this thesis and on being an emerging Māori quantitative researcher.

Whānau Ora is a new state-led, cross sectoral policy approach introduced in 2010. It places whānau outcomes at the very heart of social service delivery, and, in doing so represents a shift away from traditional approaches that delivered services to individuals. Furthermore, by focussing on collective outcomes, the approach is one that is intimately connected to Māori values and practices. This thesis traces the evolution of the Whānau Ora approach to social service delivery. In doing so, it explores the relationship between a philosophy of whānau ora, and the policy of Whānau Ora as it is enacted by various government institutions. Drawing upon data collected from interviews with key informants, the thesis argues that Whānau Ora presents opportunities for a new way of thinking about social service provision but a number of barriers may limit the potential of this approach to achieve wellbeing for Māori. First there is a danger that Māori language and culture are simply co-opted by the state in ways that transform their original meaning, and that Whānau Ora may in fact serve as a vehicle to shift responsibility for core service provision from government to Māori. Second, the differential treatment of Māori service providers by funding bodies illustrates the way in which institutional racism continues to impact on Māori. Finally, Whānau Ora is vulnerable to a political environment in which discourses of Māori privilege can impact on the longevity of policies that are seen to target Māori. As such, Whānau Ora’s contribution to greater self-determination for Māori is limited. The thesis ends by identifying key constitutional and institutional changes that are more likely to provide an environment in which self-determination can be achieved.

Social media are used increasingly worldwide to connect people and points of view. This thesis explores the role social media can play in enhancing Maori development via political engagement. It investigates the efficacy of using social media to increase Maori political awareness and participation using the Mana Party Facebook pages as a case study. It also examines the opportunities and implications of social media for indigenous development in general. Themes in the literature on social media and indigenous development include: identity politics; language revitalisation and cultural preservation; activism; knowledge management; networking and collaboration; and business and marketing. This qualitative study was informed by Kaupapa Maori and empowerment theories. It involves interviews with the Mana Party president, Mana Party Facebook page moderators, and users of the Mana Party Facebook pages. The interviews explored the objectives and outcomes of using social media to raise political awareness of Maori, finding that Mana Party objectives were met to varying degrees. It also found that social media has both positive and negative implications for indigenous development. Social media aligns with tikanga Maori through Tino Rangatiratanga and whanaungatanga. However, it can conflict with tikanga Maori due to lack of respect, cultural misappropriation, sharing sacred information, subversion of traditional hierarchy and absence of a ‘seen face’. There are thus tensions in the use of social media for political engagement among indigenous peoples. Finally, the thesis offers a framework of how to use social media with indigenous groups that emphasises the positive and mitigates the negative aspects of the platform.