Whakapapa Membership and Post Settlement Governance Entities: the Erosion of Whakapapa as the Heart of Maori Institutions?

Abstract

Whakapapa, as an important structuring framework is crucial to the survival of the Maori culture. Whakapapa informs the principles of the Maori culture. In Treaty settlement, this sentiment becomes even more important in determination over membership. Currently the Crown is determining the extent of a whakapapa relationship in Treaty settlement entities through policy. This extent includes the policy stating that iwi must include those who do not have a blood relationship, but are legally adopted under the Adoption Act 1955, as iwi members for the purposes of Treaty settlement. The inclusion of members who are not blood related goes beyond the original traditional limits of whakapapa. In extending those limits, whakapapa as a critical structuring framework for Maori culture is undermined. The inclusion of so called legal members also provides them with rights equivalent to those of whakapapa. These rights include the ability to pass iwi membership to the next generation through birth. This dissertation argues that the Crown do not know the effect of their policy on iwi whakapapa. Iwi whakapapa is being attacked and with it, the survival of the Maori culture in the future. The question becomes, what is a Maori if whakapapa is not the primary determinant of descent? Ultimately this dissertation provides the theoretical understanding of the significance of whakapapa structures to the principles of Maori culture. It is these principles that I have named the whakapapa principles because the dissertation highlights the link between whakapapa and the principles of the culture. In illustrating the importance of whakapapa, this dissertation also argues that whakapapa is a taonga and should be protected by the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, especially in Treaty settlement. This dissertation also provides a way forward that is premised in tikanga Maori, supported by the law and does not cause violence to whakapapa structures. This dissertation uses a kaupapa Maori framework to bring forth the issues so that both Crown and iwi gain some understanding as to the relevance and importance of this issue today.