Economic re-colonisation: Financialisation, indigeneity and the epistemic violence of resolution

Abstract

The 1998 Ngāi Tahu-Crown Te Tiriti o Waitangi-Treaty of Waitangi settlement represents a long battle for justice concerning Te Waipounamu (South Island) of Aotearoa, New Zealand. We focus on the resolution practices of the New Zealand Government and the impacts of financialising historic harm as economic techniques dominate the articulation of resolution. The paper challenges three main ideas. First, it illustrates a logical impossibility in a process of ‘resolution’ determined by the Crown. Second, it challenges the financialisation rhetoric applied in ‘resolving’ harm caused. Third, it challenges the imposition of economic control in requiring Ngāi Tahu to establish a corporate structure to be eligible to receive settlement. These three elements constitute ‘economic re-colonisation’ by denying alternative approaches to resolution and knowledge and consequently, the rhetoric of resolution constitutes ‘epistemic violence’.