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While Māori (the indigenous people of New Zealand) retain a strong collective identity, cultural heterogeneity renders traditional conceptualisations of Māori identity increasingly problematic. To demonstrate the diverse ways Māori define and express their own identities, this article reports research that uses life-story interviews to explore personal perceptions of identity among 35 Māori women ages 18–75. Content analysis revealed traditional cultural factors (particularly whānau/family commitment) were important for identity among all participants, although the expression of these factors differed along with age and background. Older women raised in rural communities expressed family commitment through participating in social and economic activities within their own tribal networks. Younger, urbanised Māori expressed their identities by choosing careers which advanced Māori interests, supporting Māori political aspirations, and forming close relationships with other urban Māori. Life-story excerpts are used to illustrate distinct intergenerational differences in expressions of Māori identity as well as descriptions of “Māoriness,” seldom articulated in literature on the topic. The need to expand current paradigms of Māori identity to incorporate the diversity of group members is emphasised.

This article discusses intergenerational transformations in personal identity for New Zealand's indigenous Māori and links these to macro-societal (political, economic and cultural) changes in New Zealand society. Data is drawn from the life stories of 35 Māori women aged 18 to 78. Women born prior to 1950 and raised in traditional Māori communities interpreted Māori identity as related to communal economics, resourcefulness and Māori spiritual beliefs. Those born after 1960, raised in urban (multi-cultural) communities struggled to form a positive sense of being Māori during their formative years and reported ‘dislocation’ from their Māori identities as adults. Those born after the 1970s expressed strong political views that reflected their early exposure to affirmative ideologies regarding Māori rights to equality. Marked differences in women's stories highlight the overarching influence of Māori identity politics at a collective level for personal interpretations of what it means to be Māori.

Mōteatea are the orally sung literature and one of its most famous composers was Ngāti Tuwharetoa and Ngāti Maniapoto’s Puhiwahine. This paper will explore the political philosophy and theory contained within Puhiwahine’s waiata pakanga (war song) ‘Mā Wai Rā’ written for Ngāti Toa relations particularly their war leader, Te Rangihaeata. The observations from these forms of indigenous oral literature are based in a form of emerging indigenous philosophy called whakaaro based philosophy and method. Additionally, the author introduces a Kaupapa Māori Research method Marae ā-Rorohiko which outlines how social media, in particular Facebook, can be used as a form of group validity or qualitative data gathering. The analysis of the moteatea will focus on building a first person understanding of Māori philosophy and undestandings of mōteatea settler colonialism, colonisation and the centrality of mana and aroha in Māori society. It will reveal the that Puhiwahine had a deep understanding of Māori philosophy and what was to come from her people. It will also provide new understandings around the white possessive doctrine and mana motuhake.

This paper will provide a critical critique of Alt/Far-Right Political Thought on Indigenous Issues and History in Aotearoa New Zealand. It examines the preface of the book, “One Treaty, One Nation” entitled, “Some of The Myths on Which The Treaty Industry is Based” by emerging Alt/Far-Right Publisher, Tross Publishing. The author examines supposed ‘myths’ put forward by the authors. An exploration of the relevance of Aboriginal academic Aileen Moreton-Robinson’s White Possesive Doctrine, Histographpobia and Veracini’s Commentary of “On Settling.” This piece ends by providing commentary on the collective future of Aotearoa New Zealand should be based on.

This research examines the settler colonial legacy of Aotearoa New Zealand. It shows that biculturalism has emerged as a discursive byproduct of neoliberalism and settler colonialism. Simon’s recent work and the Te Paparahi o Te Raki Waitangi Tribunal decision aligns with the view of a significant paradigm shift since biculturalism suppresses affirmation of and mana motuhake. Biculturalism can be viewed through Moreton-Robinson’s white possessive lens as well as Beck's zombie concepts, which are used to prop up deteriorating and/or fictional social institutions. As a zombie concept in Aotearoa New Zealand, “biculturalism” supports settler/invader power structures. Indigenous communities disproportionately experience the destructive consequences of neoliberal policies and statecraft. Aotearoa New Zealand’s collective future requires abandoning biculturalism; to that end the author recommends revising common historiographic thought concerning Te Tiriti o Waitangi (Treaty of Waitangi) and the concept of “settling”.

Internationally, declining voter turnout is a topic of considerable concern in many liberal democracies. In this article, we investigate whether these similar trends can be discerned in the voter turnout for Māori governance entities. We first explore some of the demographic contexts within which Māori governance entities operate with a specific focus on population, residence, and age. We then provide a detailed descriptive analysis of voting data from one particular entity: Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa, with whom we worked to understand how their elections inform their aspirations for continuing connectedness with tribal members. In the final section of the article, we present findings from an analysis of publicly available tribal voting data to see whether the trend of declining voter turnout is observable and whether online voting is shown to impact turnout.

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.

If wilderness is dead, do wild rivers exist and if so, in what form and in whose construction? This reflective article reviews perspectives on rivers in Aotearoa New Zealand as wild or tamed entities. A historical overview of the socio-cultural and institutional relationships with rivers examines the meanings of rivers in Aotearoa New Zealand through multiple lenses. This includes indigenous Māori knowledge, command-and-control mentalities of a settler society that assert human authority over rivers, the emergence of the environmental movement and associated legislation with a sustainability focus (the Resource Management Act), and recent movement towards co-governance arrangements that incorporate the original intent of Te Tiriti o Waitangi (1840). It is contended that management practices have disconnected society from rivers, and vice versa, creating a sense of environmental loss (solastalgia), especially for Māori. Using rivers in the Greater Wellington Region as examples, prospects to accommodate wild river behaviour in Aotearoa New Zealand are explored. Recognising that re-wilding is no longer a feasible option in most instances, further attempts to tame rivers are also considered to be unrealistic, especially in light of climate change and accentuated flood risk. Reconnecting with indigenous knowledge offers prospects to re-imagine wild rivers in Aotearoa, living generatively with rivers as dynamic and emergent entities.

How is it that the New Zealand government’s process for re-establishing Indigenous fishing rights has failed to deliver thriving Māori fisheries? This paper examines why, at Te Waihora, a coastal lake, and site of one of the nation’s longest running and best-funded state-Māori co-governance agreements, Māori fishers have been unable to use their rights to support their fishery. As of 2018, the lake’s culturally and ecologically significant eel population was no longer commercially viable, a decline fishers have attributed to rampant dairy industry expansion upstream. Drawing on environmental justice literatures, we deploy a multi-dimensional framework to identify factors shaping possibilities for justice in the wake of rights reconciliation, as experienced by Māori fishers, scientists, and leaders. We engage theories of political economic relations to interpret the implications of these experiences for environmental justice theory and politics. Ethnographic accounts demonstrate that the New Zealand government’s process for re-establishing Māori rights falls short of achieving distributional, procedural, and recognition-based dimensions of environmental justice, and that these effects are interlinked. In particular: (i) downstream fishers are placed to bear disproportionate costs of runoff from upstream land use change; (ii) Māori fishers have little influence over governance decisions that affect land use; and (iii) government claims, including that Māori should, “move beyond grievance mode,” obscure logics for resistance. We suggest that the government’s support for dairy industry expansion represents an attempt to mitigate crises of overaccumulation, characteristic of competitive markets. Unlike those who identify persistent injustice as a logic for turning away from the state, we argue that the recurring nature of these crises, and the role state organizations play in directing responses, indicates a rationale for continued engagement with state governing bodies to advance justice.

All peoples develop their own academic traditions: philosophies grounded in their experiences over successive generations, and theories for growing knowledge and wisdom. Mātauranga Māori (mātauranga) is the Indigenous knowledge system of these lands. It is dynamic, innovative and generative. The mātauranga continuum is the knowledge accumulated through this system. Government policies and systems have marginalised mātauranga and prioritised Western science, and the past 100 years have seen a slowing in the expansion of the mātauranga continuum. Unless the survival of mātauranga is prioritised, it will cease to flourish. Māori have discussed and written extensively about the ongoing impact of colonisation on mātauranga and tikanga Māori. This paper builds on those discussions, arguing for tino rangatiratanga, including Māori ownership of mātauranga, fulfilment of the government's obligations to Māori, and the reinstitution of mātauranga as a primary knowledge system in Aotearoa. It explains why mātauranga revitalisation is important and outlines some of the steps towards this goal. We are calling for Western academics to support mātauranga revitalisation, with the vision of two functional knowledge systems operating that are unique to New Zealand.

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 the heart of the North Island of New Zealand lies the mountainous territory ofTe Urewera, the spiritual homeland of the Tahoe people. Hidden away in the southern portion of Te Urewera is Waikaremoana - The Sea of Rippling Waters, a lake and a land with a history and tradition that are as fascinating as they are controversial. Waikaremoana is the footstool of the Ngati Ruapani section of Tahoe. This paper begins with a brief discussion of the landscape of Waikaremoana and its early tribal traditions. A systematic analysis ofthe social, political and economic effects of land alienation upon the tangata whenua of the Waikaremoana area is applied. The effects of Crown policies for Maori land, last century, and how the process was replicated throughout Aotearoa is assessed.

The signficance of the Treaty of Waitangi lies in the unique relationship which it established between Maori and the Crown, a relationship represented by the rangatiratanga sovereignty equation. Trusteeship IS a key component of the equation and implies a willingness by the Crown to honour Treaty obligations and a capacity to do so. As well it has implications for tribes undertaking to act on behalf of Maori beneficiaries. In exercising those responsibilities, and despite changes which have substantially altered Maori society, the focus remains on tribes, iwi and hapil, as the continuing manifestations ofrangatiratanga. There is a revived trend towards whakapapa as a marker of identity and the consolidation of land interests as a counter to individualism and weakening of kinship ties. Consultation between Treaty partners is a key issue but has not always been handled well, either by the Crown or even by Maori bodies whose influence is at a national rather than tribal level. Ngati Whatua interest in surplus Crown properties is an example of confused and inadequate consultation. But the relationship between rangatiratanga and the Crown is also susceptible to market forces, democratic processes, local government and the force of Jaw. Despite that, both the Waitangi Tribunal and the Courts have demonstrated an ability to enforce the principle of partnership and hence to actively intervene in the rangatiratanga sovereignty equation.

Although there is no single meaning oftino rangatiratanga, self determination is the most frequently used English equivalent. Even then a variety ofmeanings can be assumed. Two particular aspects oftino rangatiratanga, however, are relevant to contemporaryMaori society: mana whenua and mana tangata. The first acknowledges the rights ofhapii and iwi in respect oftheir own tribal affairs while the second recognises the right of Maori people generally to organise according to a range ofsocial and political groupings. Tino rangatiratanga is essentially about Maori policy being developed by Maori and Maori assuming responsibility for Maori affairs at tribal and national levels. But the absence of a national Maori bodypolitic which can bring together all elements is a barrier to the realisation of tino rangatiratanga. There is in fact aconsiderable enthusiasm for a representative policy-making body and a number of models exist. Discussion about the relative advantages is needed so that a consensus about the most useful approach can emerge. Negotiation with the Govemmentto reconsiderNew Zealand's constitutional arrangements will then be able to occur on the basis ofa unifiedMaori approach. In that debate the appropriateness of the dogma of unitary Crown sovereignty in apost-colonial environment will almost certainly be challenged.

This brief paper questions the nature of biculturalism that has developed in Aotearoa/New Zealand, namely that contested around a dualistic and antagonistic politics of either Maori or Pakeha. This paper joins a growing call for a reconceptualisation of bicultural politics in Aotearoa/New Zealand that draws on an inclusionary and multifaceted identity politics (Reilly, 1996; McClean, 1997; Spoonley, 1997). What is required is a revised approach that accounts for Maori/Pakeha relations where there are multiple subject-positions, affinities and differences continually at play through ongoing interaction and exchange. The paper argues the need for this conceptualisation to take place in an alternative space that blurs the limitations of boundaries and engenders new possibilities. I examine Homi Bhabha's notions of hybridity and the third space. I offer some introductory comment as to what these concepts might offer for a project concerned with the redesign of laws and institutions for a bicultural Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Maori aspirations for self-determination are tied to Article Two of the Treaty ofWaitangi which guarantees the tribes "the full and exclusive and undisturbed possession of their Lands Forests Fisheries and other properties so long as it is their desire to do so". Article Two provides the base with which to exercise control over economic resources which then provides the means, politically, culturally, economically and socially to determine Maori affairs. To have limited self-determining authority, Maori tribes need not only an economic base, but also an improved standing socio-economically. This paper will assess whether preferential policies based on redistributive justice are an appropriate means to help overcome inequalities between Maori and non-Maori.

Maori Affairs policy has historically proven doubleedged in simultaneously advancing yet diminishing Maori aspirations. Recent emphasis on claims-making as a key policy component is shown to be fraught with contradiction and neo-colonisms, no more so than around the ambiguous benefits of 'throwing money' at a problem rather than working through the differences in a relationship. Proposed instead of a claims-making model of Maori Affairs is a constructive engagement approach that seeks to recalibrate Maori-Crown relations by advancing innovative patterns of belonging. A commitment to constructive engagement not only bolsters the chances of living together with our fundamental differences in a post -colonising Aotearoa. A focus on relations rather than restitution also enhances the principles and practices of tino rangatiratanga rights as a framework for establishing Maori models of self-determination over jurisdictions pertaining to land, identity, and political voice.

This paper explores the theoretical perspective of a Maori world view as it relates to power relations between men and women and the role of women in customary society. It is argued that insights regarding the nature of power relations may be gained from an analysis of the cosmological narratives. Such analysis provide theoretical understandings about the position, status and role of Maori women in customary society. The position of women as powerful, autonomous, independent beings and as bearers of knowledge are recurring themes that continue to have relevance today. Definitions of mana wahine and mana whenua are discussed drawing extensively on an analysis of the cosmological narratives. This provides the basis for a discussion on the development of Maori Women's theories. It is concluded that mana wahine expresses what counts as feminism for Maori women and that western feminisms do not adequately address the needs of Maori women. Finally, some comparative perspectives with indigenous women from Australia and North America are outlined.