Whakapapa and Post Settlement Governance Entities: Issues of membership in Post Settlement Governance Entities

Abstract

Whakapapa is the heart of Maori institutions. Whakapapa is the primary determination for iwi membership and is often utilised as a technique for determining ones place in relation to others and the environment as a whole. Regarded as sacred by Māori, it is accorded the highest respect, legitimising a person‘s claim to iwi and their resources. Unfortunately, Crown policy regarding membership of iwi is legalising determination of iwi membership, changing the face and meaning of whakapapa as a social construct for all Maori. In order for iwi to receive settlement redress, iwi must establish a legal entity called a Post Settlement Governance Entity (PSGE). This entity must be approved by the Crown first, and then by iwi. Current Crown policy regarding membership criteria within a PSGE states that Treaty legislation should not override the Adoption Act. This essay argues that allowing such a policy is eroding the sanctity and purpose of whakapapa as a social construct for Maori institutions. This essay will examine this issue from a kaupapa Maori perspective, specifically whakapapa. The paper will begin by looking at the role of whakapapa as a construct for rights to resources and the importance of whakapapa to Maori culture. The Western concept of adoption by way of legislation will then be examined from/in a whakapapa context and demonstrate why legal adoption does not work well with whakapapa or Maori customary adoption (whangai). The writer will then specifically address the PSGE Crown policy allowing adopted children to be part of the iwi, and illustrate how this one policy is a catalyst for the erosion of the purpose of whakapapa as the heart of Maori institutions. The paper will conclude that Crown policy as it stands is discriminatory to Maori and at the very least Maori should have the right to determine this issue themselves.