ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the methodological approach applied in phase one of a project examining Māori consultation in New Zealand’s minerals and mining regime. The project was born out of a friendship between the authors, and our bicultural Kaupapa Māori-informed research methodology is shaped by that relationship. Here we explore how legal geography research can be informed and enriched by Kaupapa Māori approaches to research related to Indigenous peoples and their lands and resources. Our project uniquely demonstrates how bringing legal geography and Kaupapa Māori approaches into conversation can shift necessary attention to exposing the day-to-day administration of settler-state law while also upholding the role of Indigenous legal orders and jurisdiction in environmental and natural resource governance. By shifting the research gaze to the operation of settler-state institutions our approach demonstrates how researchers can undertake meaningful work on consultation regimes without placing further burdens on Indigenous communities.
