Aroha as Constitutional Method: Indigenous Ecologies of Love in Aotearoa

In 1835, rangatira directed in He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni that their aroha be carried to the King of England, the opening act of a relationship between sovereign peoples. This paper begins there. Aroha, usually translated as love, operates as constitutional method: a practice that orders relationships between peoples, settles who decides and on what terms, and binds those arrangements across generations. Aroha is more often read in research and policy as feeling or value, a reading that leaves Māori law invisible and lets institutions treat care as optional. Grounded in kaupapa Māori methodology and the Matike Mai Aotearoa framework for constitutional transformation, the paper offers three movements by which constitutional practice can be told apart from ethical, cultural and caring practice. It then follows aroha through The Tīpuna Project, where wāhine Māori lead constitutional inquiry through wānanga, raranga, rongoā, poetry and community activation. Three mediations of aroha are presented: aroha as decolonising attention, aroha as embodied freedom, and aroha as radical love carried by deadly and fierce aunties. Together they show love functioning as law from below.