Towards a Creative Tino Rangatiratanga
In a recent paper, I made a call for a ‘creative tino rangatiratanga’, a transformation of tino rangatiratanga from its current traumatised and marginalised state into a confident, positive and distinctive cultural feature of New Zealand of which we can all be proud. Since 19th century conflicts, tino rangatiratanga has been largely constructed and experienced in opposition to Kāwanatanga and the so-called ‘Pākehā’ world. Tino rangatiratanga, as we have customarily come to regard it, was created through colonisation, conflict and marginalisation. Later it became a political tool to communicate protest and disquiet. This is entirely understandable given our history. We can ask the question, however, was tino rangatiratanga envisaged in this way at the time of the signing of the Treaty? In my view, the Treaty was never designed as an instrument for the alleviation of grievance. Rather its purpose was more forward looking, guaranteeing and entrenching certain rights to those representing