Reconciling the Treaty/te Tiriti Through the Discourse of Civil Government/Kāwanatanga

Abstract

This essay charts a middle course between the old, basically Pākehā orthodoxy that sovereignty was ceded by Māori in the Treaty of Waitangi, and the newer orthodoxy that Māori never ceded sovereignty to the British Crown. The essay argues instead that government was the main paradigm of the historic treaty: it was government or kāwanatanga that was ceded or agreed to by Māori.