Te Iwi Maori

Abstract

The decade started with the 150‐year commemoration of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi that established British governance. This was when Maori were severely and disproportionately affected by the structural adjustment programmes which had reduced their standards of living and thrown them back on their own community resources as government withdrew from community involvement. The continuing conflict between the desire to retain their collective Maori identity and the almost overwhelming forces of assimilation (internally) and globalisation affected fortunes of Maori New Zealanders (internationally). This is best exemplified by the conflict in the Treaty of Waitangi between British sovereignty and Maori tino rangatiratanga. As the decade progressed, government sought a full and final settlement of the many hundreds of historical treaty claims, with a unilateral declaration of what was available ($1 billion). Unilateral actions on either side did little to assuage the long‐standing sense of mutual mistrust between Maori and Pakeha which was fuelled by a hostile mass media. Notwithstanding, ‘progress’ was made, and the twentieth century ended with Maori and Pakeha closer together than they had ever been.