Discursive strategies of the Maori tribal elite

Abstract

The Maori tribal elite are identified and their political and economic ambitions discussed with reference to recent strategic documents. Framing and supporting those ambitions is an indigenous discourse that has been crucial to the elite’s success. Five discursive strategies are analysed: (1) constructing the indigenous collective as tribal Maori; (2) constructing indigeneity as ‘the logic of the gift’ in contrast to the ‘“Western” logic of the commodity’; (3) promoting indigeneity as an ahistorical primordial category to counter the social reality of ethnic fluidity in New Zealand; (4) promoting a vocabulary in order to control the meaning of key ideas; and (5) constructing indigeneity as a polity in opposition to the nation. A Treaty of Waitangi ‘partnership’ is promoted as the means by which the indigenous–colonizer dualism is brokered. Despite its efficacy to date, the discourse is undermined by inherent contradictions, including the elite’s privileged position as a capitalist class, the growing inequalities within the tribal collective and the incarceration of indigenous people in an ahistorical timelessness.

Encircling the commons: Neotribal capitalism in New Zealand since 2000

“…Both groups include the liberal-Left which had abandoned universalist class politics for identity politics in the late 1970s and 1980s, and the neoliberals emerging in the 1980s (in some cases, the same individuals). In New Zealand's small population, these groups are relatively fluid with overlapping networks and many personal, often familial, connections (Rata 2011a(Rata , 2011b. Political decisions tend to come from the many layered interactions between these informal connections as much as from ideological positioning.…”

Ethnic Classification in the New Zealand Health Care System

“…Maori leaders have found a way through this conceptual confusion by describing Maori experiences in terms of an individual's "spiritual" inheritance as an indigenous person (Rata, 2011). To that end, poor Maori mental health status is seen as the result of being Maori; that is, to be Maori today 198 Elizabeth Rata and Carlos Zubaran is to experience life as an indigenous-but colonized and "damaged"-individual within a decimated social structure, viz.…”

“…In order to secure the status of the tribes as political, even constitutional, "partners" with the "Crown" (Durie, 2009), Treaty politics requires a political accommodation between Maori and non-Maori so that partners are distinguished as separate entities that can then be brought together in a partnership accommodation (Rata, 2011). Ethnic categorization in the health sector contributes to this distinguishing purpose.…”

Developing mahi-toi theory and analysis

“…In particular, Päkehä educationalist Elizabeth MAI JOURNAL VOLUME 6, ISSUE 2, 2017 Rata (2003Rata ( , 2004Rata ( , 2005Rata ( , 2006 contends that Kaupapa Mäori has not received sufficient international testing for it to be considered "rigorous". Furthermore, she asserts that those who utilise Kaupapa Mäori are a tribal "elite" (Rata, 2011a(Rata, , 2011b(Rata, , 2011c. Regardless, all interrogations directed at Kaupapa Mäori contribute to its development, and to the development of Mäori and Indigenous scholars who use it and attest to its saliency.…”