In this presentation, I consider not only the relationship between Māori and the state, but the response of key criminal justice agencies to the surge of Māori confidence in the 1970’s and 80’s, and desire to take control of their own destiny – the Māori renaissance as it became known. How did the Police, the prisons and the youth justice system respond to this call for rangatiratanga? How easily did it respond to the idea that Māori, far from being passive recipients of the criminal justice system, wanted a piece of the action? How well did the operational reality meld with, on the one hand, the state’s vision of a bicultural nation, and on the other, the Māori vision for a measure of autonomy, a rangatiratanga not realised in any earlier constitutional or political arrangements?
Kei ngā rangatira, e ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā maramara kohinga o te ao, tēnei ka mihi! Tēnā Koutou, tēnā tātou katoa!The preparation of this paper, was stimulated by memory of an incident that happened within our hapū in the 1950s. The Secretary/Treasurer of a local marae (let’s call him Anzac) was discovered to have defaulted with the entire building fund, a not inconsiderable sum. He had been having dreams about which horses were going to win the following Saturday, and persuaded himself that this was an easy way to increase the fund. After about six months, he realised that they were not horses, but nightmares. The horses were still running, but the building fund was no more. In repentance, he handed himself over to the Police, and served three months in Mt Crawford Prison.It was what happened next that was interesting. On his return home, the local marae committee held a pōwhiri (a welcome home) ceremony, celebrated with a hākari (feast), and immediately reinstated him as Secretary/Treasurer of the Committee. The local pākehā were astounded, and in some cases, outraged. We were referred to as ‘those stupid Māori’. In response to the generosity and grace of his whānau and hapu, the ex-offender gave up his job, worked his guts out fundraising and had the building fund restored to its original level within a year.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.