Conceptualizing Utu as a Foreign Policy Doctrine for Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

During Nanaia Mahuta's tenure as New Zealand's Foreign Minister (2020–2023), Aotearoa New Zealand experimented with a foreign policy guided by four tikanga (Māori customary practices), namely, manaakitanga (hospitality), whanaungatanga (connectedness), mahi tahi and kotahitanga (unity through collaboration), and kaitiakitanga (intergenerational guardianship). However, despite a clear rhetorical increase in the use of Māori perspectives, in practice, New Zealand's foreign policymaking remained ontologically and epistemologically Western-centric. This paper argues that if New Zealand undertakes further experimentation with a Māori foreign policy in the future, then embracing the Māori concept of utu—broadly defined as the notion of balance through reciprocation—would provide a useful ontological and epistemological base. Using the case of the Whanganui River as a domestic example, an utu foreign policy is sketched out with an emphasis on harmony, mana, and reciprocity. Utu as a foreign policy doctrine would represent a radical departure from the status quo as it is both relational and non-anthropocentric—as opposed to Western-centric models that are anthropocentric and “scientific”—and would allow New Zealand to maintain its preference for independence as well as bringing the issue of climate change to the fore of its foreign policy.