The Emergence and Evolution of Urban Māori Authorities: A Response to Māori Urbanisation

Abstract

When considering cultures and peoples in virtually any context, there can be an underlying tendency to compartmentalise these groups and make assumptions about their features and characteristics that are not necessarily borne out in practice. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the analysis of the dichotomy of traditional and modern societies presented in the writings of the American economists Walt Rostow and Neil Smelser. Rostow and Smelser both cast traditional, non-European communities as having rigid hierarchical systems, limited opportunities for social mobility, fixed limits on productive capacity, low formal educational attainment, and a generally static state of development. 1 A challenge to this depreciatory portrayal was made by the Latin American economist Andre Gunder Frank, who methodically dismantled these stifling classifications of traditional societies. Frank pointed out that constructs used by Rostow and Smelser were essentially a European-imposed perception of how traditional communities operated, and ignored the substantial capacity of these commuities for development – a capacity that would only materialise if such communities were given sufficient self-determination. The debate about the perception, nature, and capacity of so-called traditional societies in the modern world has a direct bearing on the expectations and understandings of urban Maori in Aotearoa/New Zealand. This chapter explores several themes arising out of an examination of some of the social and structural aspects of Maori urbanisation. These lead to the conclusion that the emergence of Maori urban authorities are now a permanent feature in Maori society, and are an entirely legitimate form of association, in both a structural and cultural sense.

Mapping urban Māori: A population‐based study of Māori heterogeneity

“…In moving beyond the binary dualism of Indigenous vs. non-Indigenous we are acknowledging that we now live in a thoroughly hybridized world where boundaries have become utterly porous, even though they are artificially maintained … It is therefore imperative that we adopt an approach to Indigeneity requiring the bare minimum of essentializing, which avoids imprisoning Indigeneity into a fixed, frozen category of being. (Paradies 2006, p. 361) Some authors refer to urban M aori as a separate group alongside other groups such as mana whenua (Barcham 1998;Meredith 2000), while others imply that the concept applies to those whose primary affiliation is with living in an urban environment (Keiha & Moon 2008). We propose that urban M aori is a term that describes any person who is of M aori descent, self-identifies as M aori, and who lives within an urban setting ( Fig.…”

“…Some authors refer to urban Māori as a separate group alongside other groups such as mana whenua (Barcham ; Meredith ), while others imply that the concept applies to those whose primary affiliation is with living in an urban environment (Keiha & Moon ). We propose that urban Māori is a term that describes any person who is of Māori descent, self‐identifies as Māori , and who lives within an urban setting (Fig.…”

Indigenous Struggle With Mathematics Education in the New Zealand Context

“…Māori continue to resist neo-colonization and the toxic aspects of urbanization whilst taking advantage of the beneficial aspects by reorganizing the resources available to maintain Māori social practices, community integrity, and social structures (Keiha & Moon, 2008). In addition, Māori are developing sufficient strength politically and economically to renegotiate relationships with the state and the multicultural nature of general society (Gagné, 2016).…”

Consulting with Māori during development of a point-of-care device; translational and experiential findings.

“…Significant health disparities exist for Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand due to the ongoing effects of historic colonialism (Cram et al, 2004;Ellison-Loschmann and Pearce, 2006;Jansen et al, 2009;Jones et al, 2006;Smith, 1999). These disparities are amplified for the 16% of the Māori population living in rural areas (Meredith, 2015), who face additional socioeconomic and geographical barriers to healthcare and diagnostic testing (Ministry of Health Manatū Hauora, 2012;Robson et al, 2010). Point-of-care (POC) testing, the analysis of clinical samples outside the traditional laboratory setting, has emerged as a promising means of addressing this inequity by improving access to testing (Blattner et al, 2019;Shephard et al, 2005).…”