Settler violence, family, and whānau violence in Aotearoa New Zealand

This chapter looks at the impact on M?ori that colonial and neo-colonial practices of dispossession and immiseration have had on elevated family violence rates in Aotearoa New Zealand. In reflecting on interpersonal violence, it seeks to locate systemic forms of violence, such as legislative violence, institutional violence, and economic violence, and their relationship with family violence. It draws on David Nixon’s (2011) notion of slow violence to look at the intergenerational harm of poverty, racism, and entrenched negative social issues. The focus then moves to Indigenous solutions to family violence that demonstrate the power of lived experience and social and cultural expertise to support healing and transformation in M?ori communities.