Honourable kāwanatanga: A prerequisite for constitutional transformation

Understandings of Te Tiriti o Waitangi continue to unfold as we find our way through the complexities of colonial misinformation about our herstory and history. Looking ahead to the prospect of constitutional transformation, this paper examines honourable kāwanatanga as a necessary pathway to Tiriti justice. This commentary paper draws on existing literature and insights from the Māori and Tauiwi authors’ decades of experience of pursuing Tiriti justice. The Crown has consistently breached Te Tiriti and engaged in dishonourable kāwanatanga. Māori have always resisted colonisation and imagined a future where Te Tiriti was honoured. Latterly, Tauiwi in increasing numbers have also joined this resistance. The preamble of Te Tiriti o Waitangi articulates the desire of rangatira and the British to enter into a relationship of goodwill and peace. Rangatira reasonably anticipated that the British would behave honourably. The subsequent displacement of Māori from land, language, economy and cultural traditions from 1840 onwards, resulted in devastating intergenerational harms and losses. Ani Mikaere has argued that the Māori–Crown relationship has deteriorated to the point of resembling the dynamics of an abusive relationship. This characterisation suggests an unequal and harmful interaction, where one party holds power and control over the other, often at the expense of the latter’s rights, well-being, and autonomy, whilst societal institutions and common sense, deeply support the abuser. Honourable kāwanatanga, as a tool for transformations toward social justice, is often used as an intentional description to mark Tiriti-centric governance as opposed to deep-rooted dishonourable, Tiriti-breaching governance. This form of abuse characterises the ongoing colonial hegemony which has generated and maintained institutional racism and monoculturalism and allowed it to flourish within the public service and many other sectors of society. The notion of honourable kāwanatanga intersects with the call of Matike Mai and supports collective Indigenous peoples’ rights.