From a Search for Rangatiratanga to a Struggle for Survival - Criminal Justice, the State and Māori, 1985 to 2015. The 2015 JD Stout Lecture

Abstract

In this presentation, I consider not only the relationship between Māori and the state, but the response of key criminal justice agencies to the surge of Māori confidence in the 1970’s and 80’s, and desire to take control of their own destiny – the Māori renaissance as it became known. How did the Police, the prisons and the youth justice system respond to this call for rangatiratanga? How easily did it respond to the idea that Māori, far from being passive recipients of the criminal justice system, wanted a piece of the action? How well did the operational reality meld with, on the one hand, the state’s vision of a bicultural nation, and on the other, the Māori vision for a measure of autonomy, a rangatiratanga not realised in any earlier constitutional or political arrangements?