WHAKAPAPA AND METAMORPHOSIS

Authors

  • Margaret Kawharu Ngati Whatua

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11157/sites-vol10iss1id231

Keywords:

Treaty of Waitangi claim settlements, Maori identity, whakapapa,

Abstract

In the context of running Treaty of Waitangi claims against the Crown1, I argue that the claim process is much more about what it means to be Maori, on ever shifting ground in New Zealand society, than anything else. There are three stages in the claim process once a claim is lodged: presentation of evidence, negotiations around appropriate redress and an agreed settlement. At every stage in the process, claimants are required to identify themselves in terms of their whakapapa (genealogy). Yet the fact that these terms have been determined by the Crown is in itself a result of patterns of interaction shaped by a legal, adversarial settlement process and an iniquitous colonial past. This essay aims to clarify why the claim process is so protracted and what challenges the Maori claimants face, when the very process of being eligible to engage with the Crown forces them to redefine their identity as Maori several times over. In doing so the essay points to the tension for Maori between working with indigenous concepts and values at the same time as engaging with the Crown to settle long-standing grievances. It also addresses some key anthropological questions about identity processes, showing how being claimants reinforces, embraces and strengthens the notion of a Maori identity but at the same time undermines, systematises, and limits being Maori. In this sense, one understands how the Crown, or the state, is an institution ‘that is the ground of both our freedoms and our unfreedoms’ (Scott, 1998, p. 7).

Author Biography

Margaret Kawharu, Ngati Whatua

Margaret Kawharu, of Ngati Whatua, has worked extensively on the research, negotiation and settlement phases of Treaty of Waitangi claims over the last eighteen years. Margaret wrote an MA thesis in anthropology entitled "In Search of Remedies and Reciprocity" in 2010 on aspects of the claim process. She currently serves as a trustee on Ngati Whatua o Orakei and Ngati Whatua o Kaipara post settlement governance entities and the Ngati Whatua o Orakei Whenua Rangatira Reserves Board, a co-governance board over what was known as Bastion Point. Her most recent project has been on a Te Wharekura Research team, including Prof David Williams, Prof Cris Shore, and Dr Marama Muru-Lanning, looking at the shifting legal and symbolic meanings of the Crown in New Zealand.

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Published

28-06-2013

How to Cite

Kawharu, M. (2013). WHAKAPAPA AND METAMORPHOSIS. Sites: A Journal of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies, 10(1), 51–72. https://doi.org/10.11157/sites-vol10iss1id231

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Section

Articles