Te ao Māori in a "Sympathetic" Legal Regime: the Use of Māori Concepts in Legislation

Abstract

The incorporation of Māori concepts into legislation has been one of several methods the government has employed to acknowledge and promote Māori cultural identity and give practical effect to the Treaty of Waitangi within its legislative frameworks.  While legal recognition of Māori concepts may have appeared as a positive step towards the creation of a mutually beneficial level of bicultural discourse in the government's management frameworks, in practice they have been the source of a new set of challenges. By transplanting Māori concepts directly into legislation, Māori ideas must become operational parts of Western regimes; concepts which are to be recognised and given effect to within the decision-making processes of bodies charged with the administration of particular legislation as well as the courts. Drawing on Commons' observations about the nature of artificial selection - the process by which the meaning of ideas and language is consciously or subconsciously manipulated by the group in power in order to advance its own interests, it becomes evident that, in the context of the common law legal system, Māori concepts have become detached from their original purpose and meaning.