‘Talking Past Each Other’? The Interlingual Politics of Translating Indigenous Sovereignty in Aotearoa/New Zealand

International relations scholarship has recently made significant strides in acknowledging and analysing the international politics of translation. This paper contributes to such work by untangling the interlingual politics involved in contestations between Indigenous (Māori) and non-Indigenous sovereignty in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Analysing how different stakeholders advanced different understandings of sovereignty-translation throughout, respectively, the WAI1040 inquiry process and the Treaty Principles Bill controversy, we strive to uncover the importance of distinguishing between ‘conceptual’ and ‘translational’ politics when it comes to Indigenous sovereignty claims. Beyond focusing on what happens when ‘sovereignty’ is translated between two different languages, we analyse how the nature of translating sovereignty is perceived in (post)colonial settler-Indigenous relations. Recognising the limitations of the English language when engaging with Indigenous sovereignty claims, we argue that to highlight the idea of two different languages rather than conceptions of sovereignty is to depoliticise and efface the contestation over Indigenous rights, privileges, and powers.