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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 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.

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.

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.

The primary purpose of this thesis is to provide a way in which the law can protect and respect Te Mana Motuhake. In the course of achieving this purpose, the meaning of Te Mana Motuhake o Tūhoe is discussed. Firstly, a discussion is presented on the concept of mana motuhake as a part of tikanga Māori. Like all tikanga Māori, mana motuhake is sourced from Māori cosmogony. Secondly, a Tūhoe specific analysis of mana motuhake is presented. While mana motuhake has unique meanings for different iwi, for Tūhoe, mana motuhake is connected to Te Urewera, the lands within which they dwell, the lands that sustained Tūhoe in times of adversity and in times of peace. Mana motuhake is also intertwined with Tūhoetanga or Tūhoe identity. Mana motuhake is in the songs Tūhoe sing, the haka Tūhoe perform, and the phrase adorns the flag that has become known as Tūhoe’s symbol. Mana motuhake for Tūhoe is also about having Tūhoe control over the governance of Te Urewera. To create avenues through which the law can better respect mana motuhake, the Urewera District Native Reserve Act 1896 is analysed. Although this Act was considered by Tūhoe to give recognition to Te Mana Motuhake o Tūhoe, an analysis of this Act reveals that mana motuhake was not recognised. This thesis concludes with notes for a draft Act which would capture and reflect the essence of Te Mana Motuhake o Tūhoe. These notes are not intended to be a full draft of an Act and many decisions regarding Tūhoe tikanga are left for Tūhoe to determine. However, the notes do intend to give life to the essential aspects of Te Mana Motuhake identified in this thesis, which are Tūhoe Land, Tūhoe People and Tūhoe Self-determination.