Susan Healy

A Modern State in Its Relationship with a Tribally-based People: Democracy Belied in Aotearoa / New Zealand Susan Healy

This monograph investigates the nature of the relationship of the New Zealand State (the Crown) with Maori as a tribally-based people. Although recent New Zealand governments have tried to address the history of Crown injustice to Maori, the relationship of the Crown with the Maori tribally-based world continues to be fraught with contradictions and tension. In addressing the question as to why this situation continues, use is made of reports from the Waitangi Tribunal, which was established by the Government in 1987 to enquire into Maori grievances against the Crown. These reports include detailed testimonies from claimants about their way of life and culture and the manner of their treatment by the Crown. The monograph analyses evidence from the reports in order to identify what underlies the ongoing friction between the Crown and the Maori tribally-based world. This study is of interest to those who wish to understand the contradictions between the political economy of the modern state and the tribally-based world, and reasons for the continued assertion of tribal identity in spite of the ideology that casts the modern state as a superior social order.