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This article will aim to determine the form and place of te ao Māori in the New Zealand Parliament. The article will analyse the maiden speeches of 12 Māori Members of Parliament from across the political spectrum and from different Parliaments since the adoption of Mixed Member Proportional Electoral System in 1996, and will investigate their commitment to te ao Māori based on deductive and inductive discourse analysis. It seeks to determine the presence of Māori identity indicators, as well as to determine themes unique to the Māori political context. The election of the 51st New Zealand Parliament was noted as having the greatest representation of Māori of any parliament in New Zealand history. Of the 121 Members of Parliament, 26 identify as Māori or as having Māori heritage. However, while the number of Māori Members of Parliament has increased, this does not provide the full picture of Māori representation in Parliament. This article will ask ‘How do Māori Members of Parliament best represent te ao Māori in the New Zealand Parliament?’. The research considers how Māori Members of Parliament ‘represent’ Māori in the debating chamber in Parliament, specifically, to what extent these Members of Parliament represent te ao Māori. This research also asks whether substantive representation of te ao Māori varies across the electorate types, Māori, general and list seats. The research seeks to provide qualitative analysis of the presence of te ao Māori in Parliament and which Members of Parliament most often represent a Māori worldview. Both descriptive and substantive representation provide the means for a minority perspective to be present within a parliament.

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.

That Maori are more often criminalised for cannabis use is often used as another good argument for decriminalisation. But Hirini Kaa argues things are more complex and that, as many Maori probably know, decriminalisation won't be the panacea proposed so often by privileged pakeha.

Following the annexation of Aotearoa/New Zealand by the British in 1840, Māori, as the Indigenous people of that country, experienced loss of sovereignty through the imposition of and application of new and transformative policies, including the law and unfamiliar legal and social codes. This paper considers the state and the influential legacy of an imposed, Settler-state social welfare and criminal justice system on Māori. An explicit, insider narrative will highlight how suppression, disconnection and abandonment, made manifest through particular and abusive state policies, has informed and constructed the life pathway of a member of a culturally and socially-submerged population, the Mongrel Mob gang.

This chapter examines settler colonial crime control and its impacts on Indigenous women. High rates of victimisation and high levels of over-policing and over-incarceration mark Indigenous people’s experience of settler colonialism. This chapter explores the historical and contemporary conditions of colonialism through a gender lens, exploring in particular the impact of prison on Indigenous women’s lives. The chapter is based on an interview with and subsequent written notes by Professor McIntosh in 2020 discussing women, incarceration and settler colonial control in the Aotearoa New Zealand setting.

Political encounters between settler governments and indigenous communities are freighted with the unresolved issues of indigenous independence asserted under ongoing conditions of colonial domination. Within political science, these encounters have been primarily theorised and analysed as struggles of indigenous communities for political recognition from settler states. Further, the politics of recognition is widely understood as colonising by indigenous scholars, with some arguing for an alternative politics of (indigenous) resurgence and refusal, a ‘turning away’ from the state. In this article, we argue that in the case of Ma¯ori in Aotearoa ‘turning up’ is the ethical and correct practice of politics, a practice stemming from the relational ontology of the Ma¯ori world. Thus ‘turning up’ rather than ‘turning away’ can, for Ma¯ori, itself be a practice of refusal. We outline the centrality of the embodied, face-to-face encounter within Ma¯ori politics, and identify the ongoing presence of the sovereign’s body and embodiment more broadly within the Westminster tradition, as symbolised in the concept of the Crown. Building on these compatibilities within distinct political ontologies, we argue for the potential and productivity of face-to-face political encounters, and call on the New Zealand Crown to also prioritise ‘turning up’ in its engagement with indigenous communities.

This section reviews changes to water management and governance in the past ten years. We open with a summary of Aotearoa New Zealand's historical legislative context in regard to rivers, catchments and freshwater resources. We describe the roles of local government, Maori and central government. We detail the growing recognition of tangata whenua values in water management alongside belated development of national policy direction on water quality and allocation. Drawing on the description of modelling advances, we summarise how models are being used in contemporary water management. Finally, we review the implementation of freshwater policy and the integration of science and water policy. In concluding, we argue that integration and implementation challenges must be addressed as hydrologists look beyond 2021 towards future significant legislative changes affecting water and catchment management nationwide.

Who gets to define belonging? The nation state or its citizens? The government or civil society? This article argues that, for Māori, citizenship is and has been contested and conditional. It examines the history of belonging in New Zealand, from the Treaty of Waitangi to the Citizenship Act 1977, and recommends a framework for teaching belonging and citizenship to Māori students. The idea underpinning the framework is that teaching citizenship means teaching history, or the relationship between the postcolonial state and its indigenous citizens.

Aotearoa New Zealand acknowledges mātauranga Māori in the two Acts and one Memorandum of Understanding recognising the ‘personhood’ status of three geographical regions—Te Awa Tupua, Te Urewera and Taranaki Maunga. They blend the legal fiction of corporate personhood with the already always understanding of human-nonhuman kinship and entanglement of Māori philosophy, Māori knowledge and wisdom, and Māori epistemology. Through kaitiaki (trustees) these three entities have volition in their ongoing maintenance, development negotiations, and ‘land-use’, and ‘the rights, powers, duties and liabilities of a legal person’. These attributes suggest something more than mere volition in self-management and protection: they suggest agency. This article explores the implications of nonhuman agency as potential for political voice. As representatives of entanglement for all being—animal (including human), vegetable and elemental—and as a matter of justice they are, perhaps, obliged to participate in democracy and the nation is, perhaps, obliged to give them a ‘seat at the table’. As political agents with equal status to human and corporate persons Te Awa Tupua, Te Urewera and Taranaki Maunga might unsettle settler politics and challenge the imbalances of the Anthropocene.

The idea of dignity is often taken to be a foundation for principles of justice and democracy. In the West it has numerous formulations and conceptualisations. Within the capabilities approach to justice theorists have expanded the concept of dignity to encompass animals and ecological communities. In this article I rework the idea of dignity to include the Māori philosophical concepts of mauri, tapu and mana – something I argue is necessary if the capabilities approach is to decolonise in the Aotearoa context. Furthermore, the article links the nation's recognition of three extensive geographical regions – Te Awa Tupua, Te Urewera and Mt Taranaki – as legal persons to Mātauranga Māori and nonhuman dignity. In doing so, I identify the potential that this understanding of dignity and these legal moves have to decolonise democracy within the settler state.

This thesis is a study of Maori land development schemes during the period 1945 to 1974, and contains two case studies from the Hokianga. Apirana Ngata introduced the schemes to New Zealand's legislature in 1929, giving the state direct legal and financial responsibility for assisting Maori people to develop and farm Maori land. The thesis briefly outlines the historical background to the schemes, and their social objectives. It details the development scheme legislation and policy, including its practical implementation and administrative structure. The two case studies reveal the complexities of the schemes at a local operational level, and shifts in the department's policies and approach since the 1930s. Title improvement policies have been integral to the operation of the schemes. The government has consistently viewed multiple ownership of Maori land as an impediment to bringing Maori land into full production, and the schemes relied on various devices for improving Maori land title to facilitate secure tenure arrangements for Maori farmers (including sole ownership) and to allow land development to occur. These various devices include consolidation, conversion and amalgamation. Ultimately though, the prolonged emphasis on title improvement was unwarranted. The legislation made ample provision for development to occur regardless of the number of owners or the state of the title. During their first twenty years, the schemes provided subsistence level farming. They, supported many Maori communities through depression and war, provided modern conveniences in modern homes, and reasonable incomes for families. Maori farmers and land owners responded variously to the schemes. Some were completely comfortable with the schemes, others struggled. But ultimately, the large-scale corporately run schemes would have the best chance of surviving as long term propositions. The smaller farms would eventually bow to the pressure of the demands of changing overseas markets. In the post-war years, the Department of Maori Affairs increasingly bureaucratised and formalised its land development programme, and pressed ahead with reforming Maori land titles. In the process, the department became responsible for ensuring the long term success of the schemes, and protecting the interests of the parties involved, including itself, the public, and the owners and occupiers of the schemes. The overall effect of the department's policies was to create a protected environment in which the department assisted Maori farmers into the modern farming industry, while protecting them from the cruelty of the modern economy. This thesis looks at how these things occurred by reconstructing the policy and legislation that created and maintained the schemes, discussing some of the key issues and difficulties that arose, and drawing on the experiences of the two schemes that are the subjects of the case studies in chapter five. A great shift in policy occurred as government struggled to balance its socio-economic responsibilities to Maori people and its economic responsibilities to the nation. Ultimately, schemes that began as a response to local development needs in Maori communities, emerged in the 1970s as primarily concerned with maximising the production potential of Maori land, for the benefit of the national economy.

Māori domestic violence issues were examined by consideration of convictions for assaults on females and children over the last 27 years. Assault convictions increased substantially from the mid 80s to the mid 90s, fell off, and today continues its upward trend. Māori now account for more convictions than any other ethnic group in New Zealand including Europeans. It is time to stop and reconsider the problem of domestic violence because it is quite clear that current policies aimed at ameliorating the problem may not be working. The data indicates that there are social factors that influence Māori domestic violence, factors that should be identifiable, but for the moment remain largely unknown. The progression of domestic violence as measured by convictions over the last 27 years clearly indicate that the problem is amenable to social intervention if only the right interventions can be identified. Changes in the conviction rates for violent crimes and assaults against females and children coincided with the introduction of the Children’s, Young Person’s, and Their Families Act of 1989, and the introduction of the Domestic Violence Act of 1995 suggesting that government legislation could have influenced the conviction rates. Following the introduction of the Domestic Violence Act in 1995 the conviction rate of Māori offenders increased substantially above that of Pākehā forcing one to ask the question summarized in the title of this paper. In addition, the Sentencing Act of 2002 coincided with an upsurge in convictions of Mäori for domestic violence offenses suggesting that the higher rates of Mäori convictions might be linked more to the manner in which Statutes are interpreted by the criminal justice system than to a sudden behavioural change in Mäori. The data suggests the possibility of discriminatory application of the law against Mäori by the courts that deal with domestic violence issues. Unemployment is another factor that was also considered, but the relationship between unemployment and domestic violence is not an obvious one and, in fact, based on the non-alignment of unemployment with violence convictions, unemployment may not be a driver for domestic violence at all. Current approaches to the problem of Māori domestic violence are at present speculative, and without understanding the driving forces behind the phenomenon those programmes may be limited in their success.

Using indigenous citizenship as a frame, the article examines the deeply ambiguous effects of globalisation for indigenous peoples in the Antipodes. We demonstrate that processes of economic globalisation have had an impact upon New Zealand Maori and Australian Aboriginals in ways that have heightened their vulnerability and undermined their citizenship entitlements. However, we also argue that Maori and Aboriginal peoples have used the reforms of state practice brought about by globalisation to gain greater control over their existence.

The emphasis on strengthening Maori Crown relationships in the Public Service Act 2020 and the establishment of Te Arawhiti signalled a new era in the public service's interactions with tangata whenua. Carl Billington investigates whether this is changing the way public sector agencies approach their interactions with Maori.