ABSTRACT
In Aotearoa New Zealand claims against the Crown by indigenous Māori for injustices perceived in breach of the Treaty of Waitangi signed in 1840 have been enabled by the Waitangi Tribunal, and by negotiation processes via the Office of Treaty Settlements (OTS). One of the overarching aims of the settlement process, according to an early OTS guide, was to ‘reach a settlement that restores and increases the mana and rangatiratanga of the claimant group and will restore and increase the honour of the Crown’. Focusing on post-settlement experiences of Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara, this article articulates some of the barriers to achieving this aim. It highlights three of the challenges that lie ahead and the opportunities for navigating them and argues for a move away from settlement to reconciliation, drawing on insights from the recent Parihaka reconciliation process. The author attempts to show why these challenges and this move away from settlement to reconciliation remain vital to the transformation of iwi as self-determining, and for restoring and increasing the mana and rangatiratanga of Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara. She concludes that constitutional transformation is required more than simply reform, transformation that has its roots firmly in the ground of what is uniquely Aotearoa.
