River Ownership: Inalienable Taonga and Impartible Tupuna Awa

Abstract

This article examines Maori relationships with the State, the ownership of rivers and issues of identity. At a meeting at Hopuhopu which was attended by over sixty Waikato elders, Waikato iwi’s principal negotiator for Treaty of Waitangi claims Robert Mahuta declared: 'We don’t need a bloody court document to tell us we own the river, we know we do'. This paper examines Maori understandings of ownership. However, as I hope to illustrate, in many contexts what is more important for Maori than ‘owning’ in the conventional sense are issues of authority, status and prestige.