Trouble on the Frontier: Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Sovereignty, and State Violence

Abstract

Beneath the hilarity of Taika Waititi’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016) emerges a telling commentary on the increasingly normalised presence of paramilitarism in aspects of Aotearoa New Zealand’s society. In this essay, I use Waititi’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople as a lens through which to discuss the on-going nature of colonial violence directed towards the Ngāi Tūhoe people, exemplified in the 2007 ‘anti-terror’ raids codenamed ‘Operation 8’, and the more recent (but less well known) raids that have targeted Tūhoe since 2007. I stipulate that such raids demonstrate a return to sites of ‘originary violence’ (as per Irene Watson’s thesis (2009)), where Crown sovereignty is violently reinscribed upon the frontier to reinforce the supremacy of the state. This discussion continues Vijay Devadas’ argument that Operation 8 reflected a ‘…racialised sovereignty the very foundation [of] which the legitimacy and power of state sovereignty is constituted in Aotearoa’ (2008, 124).

Indigenous Rights: Colonial Chimera? The Illusion of Positive Peace in a Settler Colonial Context

“…In this chapter, I emphasize that positive peace in settler colonial contexts is unrealizable without meaningfully addressing the dispossession of land and the precipitated impacts of colonization upon Indigenous peoples. Drawing from my research on the New Zealand settler colonial state (Aikman, 2017(Aikman, , 2019, I demonstrate how structural and overt violence continues to typify Māori existence. By "settler colonial state," I am referring to a system of government, such as a Parliamentary democracy, founded upon the dispossession of Indigenous lands, peoples, and ways of life.…”

“…The deployment of significant force by the state is, therefore, quintessential to the Crown's dealings with Māori over land in the past 150 years. In my recent research, I suggested these violent interactions demonstrate that Indigenous peoples and their sovereignties remain an existential threat to settler colonial existence (Aikman, 2017(Aikman, , 2019. The originary foundation of settler states rests upon the ongoing dispossession of Indigenous lands.…”

“…The entire valley was subject to the police operation, even though relatively few were under surveillance. This formed part of a larger nationwide police affair, termed "Operation Eight," which targeted numerous protest groups beneath the impetus of antiterrorism (Aikman, 2017). The scale of force used against the Ruatoki community was far beyond that deployed in simultaneous raids carried out elsewhere in the countrysome of which were, by contrast, located in relatively affluent areas of Wellington (Devadas, 2008, pp.…”

“…The scale of force used against the Ruatoki community was far beyond that deployed in simultaneous raids carried out elsewhere in the countrysome of which were, by contrast, located in relatively affluent areas of Wellington (Devadas, 2008, pp. 134-137; see also Aikman, 2017). Tūhoe have long been vocal about Crown injustices of the past, with a steadfast desire to maintain mana motuhake (sovereign autonomy and independence) over Te Urewera.…”

“…300-301, 291-301). Its paramilitarised response in Ruatoki in 2007 should be read through this lens, and is equally manifest in similarly violent police raids against Tūhoe in 2012 and 2014 (both in the Ruatoki Valley), and in 2016 in Kawerau (a 45-minute drive from Ruatoki) (Aikman, 2017(Aikman, , p. 69, 2019. These instances exemplify Moreton-Robinson's "perpetual Indigenous dispossession," continually reminding Tūhoe that while their sovereign claim may be paramount, the state maintains the force necessary to uphold its (ungrounded) sovereign supremacy.…”