tag:theconversation.com,2011:/nz/topics/treaty-settlements-49877/articlesTreaty settlements – The Conversation2019-09-03T04:46:25Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1225482019-09-03T04:46:25Z2019-09-03T04:46:25ZLand occupation at Ihumātao: why the New Zealand government needs to act cautiously but quickly<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290418/original/file-20190902-165977-13hicsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=54%2C108%2C5121%2C3337&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The land occupation at Ihumātao brings together Māori and heritage activists seeking to stop a housing development on a site that marks the earliest human occupation of New Zealand. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alika Wells/Wikimedia</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When TJ Perenara took the field for the All Blacks against Australia, in the critical final match of the Bledisloe Cup series last month, he wore a <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/all-blacks/115084786/tj-perenara-wearing-ihumtao-wristband-for-all-blacks-test-against-wallabies">band around his wrist with the word Ihumātao</a>. Perenara is one of a growing number of people drawn to support the protest against a housing development of the <a href="https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/otuataua-stonefields">Ōtuataua Stonefields</a> on the Manukau Harbour, near Auckland’s international airport.</p>
<p>The protest was applauded rather than condemned. <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=12259628">His coach accepted it</a>, in contrast to the way that similar sporting protests have been <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/08/athletes-face-penalty-podium-protests-pan-games-190812063420362.html">treated recently in the United States</a>. </p>
<p>Led by young and media-savvy women under the banner SOUL (<a href="https://www.protectihumatao.com/">Save our Unique Landscape</a>), Ihumātao has attracted wide public support. It has created a coalition of Māori and heritage activists seeking to preserve one of the last largely unchanged landscapes that records the very earliest human occupation of New Zealand. </p>
<p>So far, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has declined <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/396742/petition-launched-calling-on-jacinda-ardern-to-visit-ihumatao">calls to visit the site</a>. Her caution is well founded, because the conflict has the potential to undermine the long-term settlement of historical grievances. </p>
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<span class="caption">Ihumātao protest camp and surrounding land.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">LaurieM/Wikimedia</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<h2>From protest to treaty settlements</h2>
<p>Ihumātau brings together those demanding greater recognition of the site’s sad history. The people from this land were invaded, their homes looted and destroyed and some of their lands confiscated in the 1860s, on a pretext of rebellion. They suffered indignity upon indignity as the pressure of an urbanising Auckland increased. </p>
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<p>The events at Ihumātao are reviving forms of protest common in the 1970s, including highly contentious, but ultimately successful <a href="https://e-tangata.co.nz/history/bastion-point-a-desperate-struggle-and-a-dream-fulfilled/">occupations of nearby Bastion Point</a> and the <a href="https://teara.govt.nz/en/speech/36547/eva-rickard-raglan-land-occupation-1978">Raglan Golf Course</a>. Now, these protests are greatly enhanced by new media. </p>
<p>This demonstration of the power of direct action stands in contrast to the slow investigations of the <a href="https://www.waitangitribunal.govt.nz/">Waitangi Tribunal</a> and the <a href="https://www.govt.nz/organisations/te-kahui-whakatau-treaty-settlements/">settlements under the Treaty of Waitangi</a> that have followed. </p>
<p>In capturing the imaginations of younger generations, like Perenara, unborn when the Waitangi Tribunal began hearing its historical claims, Ihumātao has the potential to destabilise the investigation and settlement of historical grievances. It could also challenge the painfully constructed post-settlement organisations which represent iwi (Māori tribes) with both central and local government. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290419/original/file-20190902-165985-asy4va.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290419/original/file-20190902-165985-asy4va.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290419/original/file-20190902-165985-asy4va.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290419/original/file-20190902-165985-asy4va.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290419/original/file-20190902-165985-asy4va.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290419/original/file-20190902-165985-asy4va.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290419/original/file-20190902-165985-asy4va.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The main aim of the land occupation at Ihumātao is to stop a housing development.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alika Wells/Wikimedia</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<h2>Historic grievances</h2>
<p>Treaty settlements acknowledge historical claims and the payment of some compensation has enhanced iwi commercial and cultural development throughout the country, including for <a href="https://www.waikatotainui.com/">Waikato Tainui</a>. But for iwi of the Manukau, it has done little to resolve their long-held grievances. </p>
<p>The Waitangi Tribunal came to Makaurau marae (meeting place) at Ihumātao in 1984, eight years before Perenara was born. At the time, it had no jurisdiction to look at claims prior to 1975, when the tribunal had been established. But in its investigation of what happened to Ihumātao, and those neighbouring Māori communities, it could not avoid the sorry history of warfare, confiscation and the desecration of sacred sites, while focusing on the increasing impact of pollution and development on the iwi’s land and marine resources. </p>
<p>The investigation of the <a href="https://forms.justice.govt.nz/search/Documents/WT/wt_DOC_68495207/The%20Manukau%20Report%201985.pdf">Manukau claims</a> provided one of the most persuasive arguments that the tribunal’s powers needed to be expanded back to 1840, the year the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, to include a review of New Zealand’s entire history of colonisation. But 35 years later, the Ihumātua claims remain unsettled and the tribunal has never returned.</p>
<h2>Treaty settlements and Ihimātao</h2>
<p>In 1995, the <a href="https://nzhistory.govt.nz/politics/treaty/the-treaty-in-practice/waikato-tainuibegan">Tainui Raupatu settlement</a> began an era of treaty settlements. The settlement provided financial redress for confiscation claims, including those of South Auckland iwi. It also aimed to be full and final, to prevent Māori from raising these issues again in seeking further redress. </p>
<p>In return, treaty settlements provided for the establishment of new Māori authorities. These would represent claimants in the future, and would form the basis for a new relationship with the Crown, beginning what the Crown has claimed would be genuine treaty-based partnerships. </p>
<p>While many of the iwi of South Auckland were and remain strongly associated with Waikato Tainui and the Kīngitanga, the Māori King movement, they have also been negotiating subsequent settlements. Some, like <a href="https://www.govt.nz/treaty-settlement-documents/te-kawerau-a-maki/">Te Kawerau ā Maki</a> and <a href="https://www.govt.nz/treaty-settlement-documents/ngati-tamaoho/">Ngāti Tamaoho</a>, have been completed, but others, including <a href="https://www.govt.nz/treaty-settlement-documents/te-akitai-waiohua/">Te Akitai Waiohua</a>, are still somewhere in the queue.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290415/original/file-20190902-165997-1dtryhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=38%2C100%2C5137%2C3344&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290415/original/file-20190902-165997-1dtryhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290415/original/file-20190902-165997-1dtryhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290415/original/file-20190902-165997-1dtryhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290415/original/file-20190902-165997-1dtryhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290415/original/file-20190902-165997-1dtryhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290415/original/file-20190902-165997-1dtryhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Ihumātao has attracted wide public support.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alika Wells/Wikimedia</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>The whole settlement process relies on a policy established in the early 1990s, when Perenara was but a toddler. The policy is locked into the assumptions about Māori and the Crown and the role of the state that dominated the period of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogernomics">state restructuring from 1984 to 1993</a>. </p>
<p>The government established a cap of NZ$1 billion for all <a href="https://www.bwb.co.nz/books/treaty-of-waitangi-settlements">treaty settlements</a>. Each iwi negotiates a package of financial and cultural redress, but the financial redress is driven by a set of relativities established at the time. This determined that Tainui as a whole got NZ$170 million for raupatu (confiscation) claims and Te Akitai Waiohua Agreement in Principle entitles them to NZ$9 million for the settlement of their remaining claims, including Ihumātao. </p>
<p>Treaty settlements today rest on once highly unpopular policies, determined by largely forgotten politicians a generation ago. Innovations such as recognising the legal personality of <a href="https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/atea-otago/27-11-2017/if-the-hills-could-sue-jacinta-ruru-on-legal-personality-and-a-maori-worldview/">Te Urewera</a> and the <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/2019/04/maori-river-in-new-zealand-is-a-legal-person/">Whanganui River</a> have been welcomed by many Māori. However, there is also disquiet over the <a href="https://vup.victoria.ac.nz/new-treaty-new-tradition/">impact of treaty settlements on iwi</a>. </p>
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<h2>Todays’s protests, yesterday’s treaty settlements</h2>
<p>The Ihumātao protest began in 2016, but only gained momentum in the popular imagination after all legal remedies were exhausted and the <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12252194">police were called in</a>. If a new generation, long separate from those who led the claims in the 1980s, choose direct action and successfully bring the Crown to the negotiating table, then the message is clear. Protest works because patiently sitting in line does not. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290421/original/file-20190902-165989-11hwsgs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290421/original/file-20190902-165989-11hwsgs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290421/original/file-20190902-165989-11hwsgs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290421/original/file-20190902-165989-11hwsgs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290421/original/file-20190902-165989-11hwsgs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290421/original/file-20190902-165989-11hwsgs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290421/original/file-20190902-165989-11hwsgs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Awareness of the land occupation increased after police were brought in.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>It is possible that this whole protest can be separated from historic treaty claims, without reopening existing settlements or upsetting relativities between settlements. SOUL are very careful to limit the protest to the stonefields and to halting a housing development. </p>
<p>Extracting Ihumātao from broader grievances would still be difficult, as the Waitangi Tribunal found in 1984. If the protest can be contained as limited to preserving historic landscapes for future generations, Māori and non-Māori, an agreement could be reached that remains technically outside of Treaty of Waitangi claims and settlements. </p>
<p>To use Crown money to purchase private land, to resolve a treaty grievance, would have flow-on effects throughout the country. One solution already suggested, for the Crown to provide <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/397328/there-is-no-deal-waikato-tainui-leader">Tainui Waikato the funding to purchase the land</a> in the name of King Tuheitia, would provide an effective solution, outside of the treaty settlement process and through a recognised iwi entity. </p>
<h2>Challenging times for Māori and Crown</h2>
<p>It is not just the Crown who needs to tread carefully. If the Crown was to negotiate with SOUL, come to a settlement which involved public expenditure to purchase land from its current owners, <a href="https://fletcherbuilding.com/">Fletcher Building</a>, then it would give legitimacy to any Māori group attempting to undermine and reverse the decisions of Crown recognised tribal authorities. </p>
<p>Even in negotiating with SOUL, the Crown would be seen as ignoring an agreement between Fletcher Building and one of its Crown recognised treaty settlement entities, the Te Kawerau ā Maki Trust, even though Te Kawerau ā Maki’s relationship with Ihimatāo is more recent and personal than based on customary interests. </p>
<p>All of this is occurring at a time when Crown/Māori relationships appear to be in crisis. Major questions are being asked about the ministry for children <a href="https://www.orangatamariki.govt.nz/">Oranga Tamariki</a>, the justice system’s treatment of Māori prisoners, Māori mental health and the treatment of <a href="https://www.orangatamariki.govt.nz/about-us/royal-commission-of-inquiry/">Māori children in care in the past</a>. </p>
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<p>In all of this, leading Māori authorities created out of treaty settlements have the capacity to provide kaupapa Māori (by Māori for Māori) services in the interests of hapū (sub-tribes) and whānau (family). There is a significant risk that if government is not seen to be acting responsibly and quickly, not only to resolve Ihumātoa but also these broader issues of disadvantage, the structures created by treaty settlements could be under threat. </p>
<p>However much treaty settlements can pretend to be full and final, to put history behind us, this objective has been a notable failure almost everywhere in this country’s past. New generations demand their own way of confronting and reimagining the past and in negotiating in the present. They will not be bound by those before them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122548/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Belgrave does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The land occupation at Ihumātao, near Auckland’s airport, is reviving forms of protest common in the 1970s, now enhanced by new media and led by a new generation of Māorikeen to see grievances addressed.Michael Belgrave, Professor History, Massey UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1109822019-02-05T19:06:37Z2019-02-05T19:06:37ZExplainer: the significance of the Treaty of Waitangi<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256778/original/file-20190201-103164-144o658.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=51%2C34%2C2810%2C1504&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">On February 6, 1840, representatives of the British Crown and Māori chiefs acting on behalf of their tribes signed the Treaty of Waitangi.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Treaty of Waitangi is New Zealand’s foundation document. On February 6, 1840, the treaty was signed by representatives of the British Crown and Māori chiefs who acted on behalf of their hapū (sub-tribes). </p>
<p>Māori are indigenous to New Zealand, with historical ties and common narratives extending to Polynesia. The signing of the treaty confirmed formal European settlement in New Zealand. But debate and confusion have continued ever since regarding the exact meaning of the treaty text.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-zealands-indigenous-reconciliation-efforts-show-having-a-treaty-isnt-enough-49890">New Zealand's indigenous reconciliation efforts show having a treaty isn't enough</a>
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<h2>Nuance in translation</h2>
<p>The debate stems from the fact that the parties involved in its signing, namely the rangatira (chiefs) and New Zealand’s first governor <a href="https://nzhistory.govt.nz/people/william-hobson">William Hobson</a> on behalf of the British Crown, had different understandings and expectations as to what they had signed and what authority they would exercise. </p>
<p>There are two accepted versions of the Treaty of Waitangi: a Māori text known as Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the English version hereon called the Treaty of Waitangi. Under law both are accepted as the Treaty of Waitangi, but they are <a href="https://nzhistory.govt.nz/files/documents/treaty-kawharu-footnotes.pdf">significantly different in meaning</a>. </p>
<p>Te Tiriti speaks of the chiefs maintaining their tino rangatiratanga (authority) over their taonga (all that they hold precious, including the Māori language). The chiefs allow the Queen to have kāwanatanga, a nominal and delegated authority so that she can control her people. On the other hand, the treaty in English tells us that the chiefs ceded their sovereignty to the crown while retaining full, exclusive and undisturbed possession over their lands, estates, forests and fisheries. </p>
<h2>A matter of interpretation</h2>
<p>Given that at the time of the signing, the dominant language was Te Reo Māori and the majority of the discussions would have been conducted orally, the Māori text of Te Tiriti reflects the intentions of the chiefs. It is a critical reference point in informing our understandings, reinforced by the <a href="https://www.ashurst.com/en/news-and-insights/legal-updates/exclusion-clauses-and-the-limitation-of-the-contra-proferentem-principle/">international convention of contra proferentem</a> in relation to treaty making. This rule in contract law states that any clause considered to be ambiguous should be interpreted against the interests of the party that requested the clause to be included.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/108428146/national-portrait-dame-claudia-orange-treaty-witness">Claudia Orange</a>, generally considered the most authoritative Pākehā (non-Māori) <a href="https://books.google.co.nz/books/about/The_Story_of_a_Treaty.html?id=9_Z3VI9gcqQC&redir_esc=y">historian on the treaty</a>, states:</p>
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<p>The treaty was presented in a manner calculated to secure Māori agreement. The transfer of power to the Crown was thus played down. </p>
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<p>Bear in mind also that the <a href="https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/interactive/the-declaration-of-independence">Declaration of Independence</a>, the forerunner to Te Tiriti/Treaty, signed in 1835, had affirmed the authority chiefs already had. This meant they held mana and rangatiratanga (all power and sovereign authority). This system of political authority had been in place for many centuries. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257316/original/file-20190205-86210-1shx1nt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257316/original/file-20190205-86210-1shx1nt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257316/original/file-20190205-86210-1shx1nt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257316/original/file-20190205-86210-1shx1nt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257316/original/file-20190205-86210-1shx1nt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257316/original/file-20190205-86210-1shx1nt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257316/original/file-20190205-86210-1shx1nt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Governor General of New Zealand, Dame Patsy Reddy, during a welcome ceremony to the treaty grounds at Waitangi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Eileen Cameron</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Legal status of the treaty</h2>
<p>Fast forward to 2019 and what has been happening in the landscape of treaty jurisdiction. During and after the cumulative impact of introduced legislation and policies which led to systemic colonisation, consistent and unwavering Māori protests at violations of both treaties eventually led to the introduction of the <a href="http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/0114/107.0/DLM435368.html">1975 Treaty of Waitangi Act</a> and its 1985 amendment.</p>
<p>This gave us the <a href="https://www.waitangitribunal.govt.nz/">Waitangi Tribunal</a>, which allows for a process to hear claims about breaches of the treaty, typically the taking of land and resources from Māori. The tribunal found in 2014 that <a href="https://forms.justice.govt.nz/search/Documents/WT/wt_DOC_85648980/Te%20RakiW_1.pdf">Maori did not cede their sovereignty</a> in Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It also introduced a set of principles which embodied the intention of both treaties in an attempt to mediate the differences in the two versions.</p>
<p>A series of judgements and mandates by the courts and the Waitangi Tribunal also ruled that the Crown has the right to govern (kāwanatanga), subject to the protection of Māori interests (rangatiratanga). This position is <a href="https://mebooks.co.nz/politics-and-social-issues/ngapuhi-speaks-ebook">not accepted by many Māori</a> who will continue to <a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/northland/8076281/Ngapuhi-role-in-Treaty-examined">advocate for the supremacy of rangatiratanga</a> over kāwanatanga. </p>
<p>In his <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1429905">book about the treaty’s place in New Zealand law and constitution</a>, Mathew Palmer notes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Waitangi Tribunal developed the core of an interpretation of the meaning of the treaty that could and should be applied in contemporary New Zealand. This was a forward-looking constructive approach to enhancing relationships between the Crown and Māori.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A long-standing education campaign about the Treaty of Waitangi has also helped non-indigenous New Zealanders to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/2201473X.2011.10648812">appreciate the significance of the treaty relationship</a>.</p>
<h2>Treaty settlements</h2>
<p>Most discussions on the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi generally include the following:</p>
<ul>
<li>duty to act in good faith, reasonably and/or honourably</li>
<li>principle of partnership</li>
<li>principle of protection or active protection.</li>
</ul>
<p>New Zealand’s constitution demands that robust public policy gives expression to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. This has led to the redesign of Crown agencies which must now be culturally responsive to the aspirations of Māori and actively innovate solutions to reduce the <a href="http://www.rangahau.co.nz/assets/decades_disparity/disparities_report3.pdf">glaring social disparities where Māori are disproportionately represented</a>. </p>
<p>The Waitangi Tribunal has <a href="https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/research-papers/document/00PlibC5191/historical-treaty-settlements">heard and settled 54 treaty claims</a> since 1989, including financial redress of more than NZ$1.5 billion. The first settlement, in respect of the Waitomo Caves, involved the transfer of land and a loan. Settlements since then have included several elements of redress: a formal apology by the crown, financial and cultural redress, the transfer of or the option to purchase significant properties, and restoration of traditional geographical names. </p>
<p>Since the identity of hapū is rooted in their physical and spiritual relationship with the environment over hundreds of years, these forms of cultural redress acknowledge the tribe as the rightful guardians and their deep association with place. The process seeks to restore the sacred relationships compromised by colonisation.</p>
<p>The treaty settlement process has been the catalyst for significant economic growth for iwi (tribe) controlled assets and Māori enterprise. This naturally brings positive development to the New Zealand economy, encouraging iwi and Māori to continue to progress their advancement not only economically but socially, culturally and environmentally.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110982/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sandra Morrison receives funding from the NZ Govnt Deep South Science Challenge; NZ Plant and Food
She is affiliated with International Council for Adult Education</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ingrid L M Huygens is self-employed as a national Treaty educator, and is also national coordinator for the charitable organisastion Tangata Tiriti - Treaty People Incorporated. She is a member of Network Waitangi, which connects tauiwi who support Te Tiriti o Waitangi.. </span></em></p>The Treaty of Waitangi, signed in 1840, is New Zealand’s foundation document. But debate continues about the exact meaning of the treaty text.Sandra Morrison, Associate Professor, Faculty of Māori and Indigenous Studies, University of WaikatoIngrid L M Huygens, Treaty educator, Māori & Indigenous Studies, University of WaikatoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1020292018-09-20T05:27:56Z2018-09-20T05:27:56ZThe kīngitanga movement: 160 years of Māori monarchy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235932/original/file-20180912-144470-1qlko2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=320%2C0%2C2189%2C1285&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A traditional haka held during the week-long coronation ceremony for the Māori king.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Xavier La Canna/AAP</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236787/original/file-20180918-158225-1j1matb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236787/original/file-20180918-158225-1j1matb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236787/original/file-20180918-158225-1j1matb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236787/original/file-20180918-158225-1j1matb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236787/original/file-20180918-158225-1j1matb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236787/original/file-20180918-158225-1j1matb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236787/original/file-20180918-158225-1j1matb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The current Māori king, Te Arikinui Kiingi Tūheitia, in 2012.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>New Zealand’s Māori king, <a href="https://nzhistory.govt.nz/politics/the-maori-king-movement/te-kingitanga/introduction">Te Arikinui Kiingi Tūheitia</a>, recently celebrated 160 years since the installation of the first Māori monarch, <a href="https://nzhistory.govt.nz/politics/the-maori-king-movement/potatau-te-wherowhero">Pōtatau Te Wherowhero</a>, at Ngāruawāhia on the Waikato River in 1858. </p>
<p>The movement to establish a Māori monarch, known as kīngitanga, emerged following colonisation to protect Māori land ownership and Māori constitutional autonomy. Since then, it has helped bring otherwise independent tribal communities together to protect their tribal identities and resources.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/strong-sense-of-cultural-identity-drives-boom-in-maori-business-87500">Strong sense of cultural identity drives boom in Māori business</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Māori resistance</h2>
<p>The fact that the movement survived to the present is remarkable in itself. <a href="https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/1g21/grey-george">George Grey</a>, one of Queen Victoria’s most able consuls, <a href="http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-GorMaor-t1-body-d16.html">famously declared in 1861</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I shall not fight against him with the sword, but I shall dig round him till he falls of his own accord. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>When his digging failed, he dispatched an imperial army in 1863 to destroy <a href="https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/2t14/tawhiao-tukaroto-matutaera-potatau-te-wherowhero">King Pōtatau Tāwhiao</a>, who had succeeded his father in 1860. Māori resistance was far more effective than the Europeans anticipated, but the king and his forces were pushed up the Waikato and Waipā rivers and around 900,000 acres of Māori land was confiscated. </p>
<p>Through war, confiscation, post-war poverty and continued land loss, the kīngitanga movement remained a focus for Māori resistance. In the 20th century, it provided the leadership to reach a number of settlements with the Crown, most significantly over confiscated Maori lands and the management of the Waikato River.</p>
<h2>Origins of kīngitanga</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://www.nzjh.auckland.ac.nz/document.php?wid=595">movement has its origins</a> in the dramatic decades that followed the <a href="https://teara.govt.nz/en/treaty-of-waitangi">1840 Treaty of Waitangi</a>, which led to New Zealand becoming a British colony. </p>
<p>Determined to understand the European world, many Māori leaders rapidly adopted Christianity and literacy. From their appreciation of the Bible and European nationalism, leaders like <a href="https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/1t82/te-waharoa-wiremu-tamihana-tarapipipi">Wiremu Tamihana</a> promoted the election of a king as a way to protect Māori land ownership, retain constitutional authority over the Māori world and unite the country’s disparate, and often warring, tribal groups.</p>
<p>Europeans initially treated it as some form of childish imitation, but they underestimated the sophistication of the extended debates preceding Te Wherowhero’s election. The tribes that supported him agreed to give up authority over their land to prevent individual rangatira (chiefs) from selling plots and compromising the interests of others. This was unprecedented in Māori tradition. And it worked. </p>
<p>Supported largely by tribes descended from those arriving on the <a href="https://teara.govt.nz/en/speech/2512/tainui-canoe">Tainui canoe</a> (one of many which had initially colonised New Zealand), the movement effectively halted land sales by its supporters. It also began to be taken far more seriously in 1860, when some of its members joined Taranaki iwi (tribes) in resisting the military force used to complete a highly disputed land purchase. By July 1863, invasion was the colonial government’s preferred method to contain it.</p>
<p>Despite its losses, the kīngitanga was not defeated and certainly not destroyed. For 20 years following the final battle in April 1864 at Orakau, the king ruled an independent sovereign state in the centre of the North Island. There were no colonial police or military and no courts, roads, surveyors or schools. Europeans ventured into the King Country (Rohe Pōtae) at their own risk. </p>
<h2>Main trunk line diplomacy</h2>
<p>During the late 1870s, the colonial government needed access to the area to build the main trunk railway. This forced it into diplomatic negotiations with King Tāwhiao, as if he was an independent monarch. </p>
<p>He appealed to European public opinion, with a series of triumphal royal tours across the Waikato and Auckland. In 1884, he went to London to push the British government to recognise Māori grievances. He was the hit of the season there, entertained by the rich and the powerful, and a frequent visitor to the royal boxes of the London theatre. </p>
<p>However, in the end, despite his protests, he had to accept the opening up of the King Country, without achieving the return of the confiscated land. </p>
<p>Through these decades, colonial officials confidently predicted the kīngitanga’s collapse. But it proved surprisingly resilient. Tāwhiao transformed it into a peaceful resistance movement and made it a focus for supporting the material and spiritual needs of its followers. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236806/original/file-20180918-158213-piaqji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236806/original/file-20180918-158213-piaqji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=692&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236806/original/file-20180918-158213-piaqji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=692&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236806/original/file-20180918-158213-piaqji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=692&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236806/original/file-20180918-158213-piaqji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=869&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236806/original/file-20180918-158213-piaqji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=869&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236806/original/file-20180918-158213-piaqji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=869&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A stamp printed around 1980 shows Princess Te Puea Herangi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The movement faced hard times at the beginning of the 20th century, but was revitalised by <a href="https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/3h17/herangi-te-kirihaehae-te-puea">Te Puea Herangi</a>, who led the movement from behind the throne. She reached an accommodation with the government, and gave the movement new stability and confidence heading in the future. </p>
<p>During the first world war, the movement boycotted the war effort and resisted the conscription of its young men. After the war, a Royal Commission blamed Grey and his government for the land confiscations, and eventually parliament provided an annual compensation payment, but one that fell far short of even the limited recommendations of the commission.</p>
<p>After the second world war, the Tainui Māori Trust Board, set up to administer the settlement funds, gave the movement some degree of financial stability until the annual payments were made largely worthless by galloping inflation during the 1970s. By then, urbanisation and a Māori renaissance provided greater opportunities to promote Māori cultural revival, and once again negotiate a settlement with the government. </p>
<h2>Success brings challenges</h2>
<p><a href="https://teara.govt.nz/en/waikato-tribes/print">Waikato</a>, the iwi (tribe) most affected by land confiscations, negotiated a <a href="https://nzhistory.govt.nz/page/waikato-tainui-sign-deed-settlement-crown">Treaty of Waitangi settlement in 1995</a>. <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/the-queen-says-sorry-to-wronged-maoris-1536901.html">Queen Elizabeth II also personally apologised</a> for the way the iwi had been treated during the 1860s. </p>
<p>In the mid-19th century, Waikato had exported a substantial agricultural surplus to Australia and beyond through the port of Auckland. The NZ$170m settlement aimed to reinstate the tribe as an economic force south of Auckland, and it has been largely successful. </p>
<p>But Waikato were only one of the constituent iwi (tribes) of the kīngitanga. Separate settlements have been reached with other tribes, and will continue.</p>
<p>Success has brought its own challenges. After some initial hiccups, Waikato have dramatically increased their assets to over NZ$1.2 billion. But the kīngitanga has to reconcile its new corporate identity with the relative poverty and disadvantage of a substantial proportion of its members. </p>
<p>A corporate leadership, centred on the king, has created fears at the community level that local hapū (sub-tribal groups) interests may be sacrificed for larger business objectives. </p>
<p>Some of the salaries paid to leading administrators heighten such fears. Settlement resources can be used to reinvigorate the cultural life of a tribal group, but the funding cannot dramatically change the economic status of its members. There’s just not enough money. Nonetheless, having real resources creates novel problems for a movement that has been impoverished for most of its history. </p>
<p>Other tensions are not new. Despite uniting under a king, the constituent tribes remain fiercely independent. As these iwi develop their own strategies and build up their own capital, the role of the kīngitanga will change. </p>
<p>That it is here at all is a testament to its ability in the past to work through these tensions and to remake itself.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102029/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Belgrave has been working for claimants affiliated to the Kīngitanga in research for their Treaty of Waitangi Claims.</span></em></p>The movement to establish a Māori monarch emerged following colonisation to protect land ownership and to bring otherwise independent tribal communities together.Michael Belgrave, Professor History, Massey UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/875002018-02-26T01:50:07Z2018-02-26T01:50:07ZStrong sense of cultural identity drives boom in Māori business<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206670/original/file-20180215-131010-1hq53qn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Māori businesses now account for an economic asset base of more than NZ$42.6 billion, made up mostly of small and medium-sized enterprises.
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/maori-carving-te-whakarewarewa-thermal-reserve-766700473">Judith Lienert/Shutterstock</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.nzstory.govt.nz/blog/maori-business-stories-culture-and-creativity/">Māori entrepreneurs</a> with a strong sense of cultural identity and guardianship over the land and the sea are driving a <a href="http://archive.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/people_and_communities/maori/tatauranga-umanga-2016-ma-mr.aspx">boom in Māori business</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://archive.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/people_and_communities/maori/tatauranga-umanga-2016.aspx">Māori businesses</a> now account for an economic asset base of more than NZ$42.6 billion, according to the <a href="http://www.tpk.govt.nz/en/a-matou-mohiotanga/business-and-economics/maori-economy-report-2013">latest estimates</a>. Small and medium-sized enterprises make up the largest part of the Māori economy.</p>
<p>These entrepreneurs are building on a business approach with ancient roots – a <a href="https://seniorsecondary.tki.org.nz/Social-sciences/Business-studies/Maori-business/Culture-and-values">Māori way of thinking and doing business</a> and its ability to reconnect with our common heritage as descendants of Papatūānuku, mother earth. </p>
<h2>Drivers of Māori entrepreneurship</h2>
<p>A number of developments are likely to be driving this. Chief among them are Māori frustration and anger over the negative effects of <a href="https://www.fishpond.co.nz/Books/Struggle-Without-End-Ranginui-Walker/9780143019459">loss of land, language, culture and tribal autonomy</a> over successive generations. The response has been a cultural renaissance. It started in the early 1970s and set out to reaffirm Māori as tangata whenua (people of the land) with enduring rights as the indigenous people of Aotearoa. </p>
<p>Out of this period of tumult came the Crown’s attempt at peace and reconciliation with Māori through the <a href="https://www.waitangitribunal.govt.nz/">Waitangi Tribunal</a>. <a href="https://www.govt.nz/organisations/office-of-treaty-settlements/">Settlements</a> under the <a href="https://mch.govt.nz/treatyofwaitangi">Treaty of Waitangi</a>, which was signed by Māori chiefs and representatives of the British Crown in 1840, are probably the single-most important factor in <a href="https://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/handle/10289/2589">changing perceptions of the Māori economy</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-zealands-indigenous-reconciliation-efforts-show-having-a-treaty-isnt-enough-49890">New Zealand's indigenous reconciliation efforts show having a treaty isn't enough</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>However, settlements made up only about 1% of the NZ$36.9 billion Māori economic asset base in 2010. It is the 15,600 or so Māori small and medium-sized enterprises, managing NZ$26 billion in assets, that make up the <a href="http://www.berl.co.nz/assets/Economic-Insights/Economic-Development/Maori-Economy/BERL-2011-The-Asset-Base-Income-Expenditure-and-GDP-of-the-2010-Mori-Economy.pdf">largest part of the Māori economy</a>. Bankers, investors and suppliers are drawn to Māori enterprises as potential partners, eager to understand how to modify their offerings and methods with this market in mind.</p>
<p>Air New Zealand’s increasing use of te reo, the Māori language, springs to mind. While casually introduced, it belies a much sterner “behind the scenes” challenge to normalise Māori language and culture within our national carrier. </p>
<h2>Māori economic renaissance</h2>
<p>Not since the burgeoning tribal economies of the first half of the 19th century, when surpluses from <a href="http://www.press.auckland.ac.nz/en/browse-books/all-books/books-2006/Chiefs-of-Industry-Mori-Tribal-Enterprise-in-Early-Colonial-New-Zealand.html">hapū-based (subtribal) enterprises</a> sustained settlers and tribes, has entrepreneurship been viewed as an appealing possibility among Māori. </p>
<p>Until recently, being Māori and an entrepreneur was an anomaly. The mainstay of Māori livelihoods since the 1930s was employment in labouring jobs in “salt of the earth” professions such as construction, forestry, fishing, health and education. Yet, <a href="http://www.mbie.govt.nz/about/whats-happening/news/2015/maori-in-business-report-released">appetite for entrepreneurship</a> is growing among Māori. </p>
<p>The Māori renaissance brought forth support for other forms of Māori-centred policy. Kōhanga reo (Māori language preschools), kura kaupapa (Māori language secondary schools), and wānanga (Māori tertiary institutions) are examples of successful Māori-centred initiatives in education. There is also acceptance that Māori health models and practitioners are needed to improve Māori health. The official recognition of the Māori language as a taonga (treasure) led to the institution of Māori radio, television and spectrum to sustain it. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/kia-ora-how-maori-borrowings-shape-new-zealand-english-82683">Kia ora: how Māori borrowings shape New Zealand English</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Māori ingenuity in business</h2>
<p>While Māori ways of thinking and doing were becoming increasingly normalised within health, education and the media, the same acceptance was not apparent in commerce and industry. For instance, few Māori business leaders in the 1980s and 1990s could easily point to their equivalent of Māori health’s “<a href="https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/populations/maori-health/maori-health-models/maori-health-models-te-whare-tapa-wha">te whare tapa whā</a>” (four dimensions of health) as a model of how Māori do business.</p>
<p>The power of enterprise to transform Māori lives was embraced when a decade of Māori development was set in motion following the <a href="http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-HilMaor-t1-body-d8-d5.html">Māori Economic Summit</a> (Hui Taumata) in 1984. Within its remit, enterprise development was identified as an important means of realising Māori aspirations for self-determination. </p>
<p>Somewhat against the tide of the then government’s withdrawal of direct support for industry, a number of initiatives to assist Māori enterprises were established following Hui Taumata. Some of them still exist today, including <a href="https://poutama.co.nz/">Poutama Trust</a> and <a href="http://www.mwdi.co.nz/">Māori Women’s Development Incorporated</a>. </p>
<p>Among many examples of successful Māori business leaders are Business Hall of Fame inductee <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/89974713/mavis-mullins-to-be-inducted-into-new-zealand-business-hall-of-fame">Mavis Mullins</a>, <a href="http://public.imoko.com/people/">iMoko innovator Dr Lance O’Sullivan</a>, <a href="https://www.kono.co.nz/news-stories/2017/7/28/kono-ceo-rachel-taulelei-awarded-prestigious-scholarship">Kono chief executive Rachel Taulelei</a>, <a href="https://www.nzonscreen.com/person/ian-taylor/biography">animation entrepreneur Ian Taylor</a>, <a href="http://www.roboticsplus.co.nz/our-people/id/66">horticultural robotics entrepreneur Steve Saunders</a>, <a href="http://federation.conference.maori.nz/presenters/Traci-Houpapa.htm">Federation of Māori Authorities chair Traci Houpapa</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7xXfIt8cQQ">2017 Young Māori business Leader of the Year Blanche Murray</a>. </p>
<p>All are exemplars of a rich vein of modern Māori entrepreneurship, integrating Māori and Western capabilities to create value. </p>
<h2>An ideal model for enterprise assistance</h2>
<p>This history shows that public funding of enterprise assistance for Māori ebbs and flows with changing political ideologies. My doctoral research shows that Māori businesses operate on an uneven playing field where Māori providers face a different level of scrutiny as to their value for money. Māori enterprises need both Māori-specific and mainstream support, but the knowledge of what works for Māori has so far been limited to policy evaluations rather than empirical research.</p>
<p>My research found that Māori entrepreneurs identified seven main features of the <a href="https://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/7390">ideal model of enterprise assistance</a>:</p>
<ul>
<li>operates within an entity substantially owned and controlled by Māori;</li>
<li>partially government funded;</li>
<li>delivery by Māori in partnership with mainstream providers;</li>
<li>multiplicity of assistance (e.g. information, advice, facilitation, training, grants, and finance); </li>
<li>cultural authenticity and flexibility; </li>
<li>long-term relationships with Māori enterprises; </li>
<li>and varying assistance over the business life cycle. </li>
</ul>
<p>Within <a href="http://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/learning/departments/centres-research/te-au-rangahau-maori-business-research-centre/te-au-rangahau_home.cfm">Te Au Rangahau</a>, a Māori business and leadership research centre, we are building on this work. We found that Māori-specific providers tend to resemble these characteristics, but mainstream providers could improve. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-management-and-organization/article/how-does-enterprise-assistance-support-maori-entrepreneurs-an-identity-approach/0B319BE6DD876A788CC7862122AF8EF7">Research</a> identifies three key competencies that consistently matter to Māori entrepreneurs: cultural competency (knowledge of the Māori language, culture and history and the ability to use it), relational competency (time invested in forming relationships with Māori entrepreneurs) and technical competency (delivering on promises). </p>
<p>It also identifies principles that providers (Māori and mainstream) can use to evaluate their assistance against Māori entrepreneurs’ needs and preferences. With such change in enterprise assistance all of Aotearoa is set to benefit from the “new normal” – Māori entrepreneurial success. Mauri ora!</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87500/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Paul Mika does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Māori business is booming thanks to entrepreneurs with a strong sense of cultural identity and a willingness to take risks.Jason Paul Mika, Senior Lecturer, School of Management, Massey UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.