Whakapapa and whenua: An insider’s view

Abstract

This paper extends the previous article which presented whakapapa (genealogy) as a framework for understanding identity (Te Rito, 2007a) by tracing the history of events concerning a number of transformations regarding the ownership and ultimate disposal of extensive tracts of land that were originally under Māori ownership/guardianship. Much land was lost and as a consequence, whakapapa links and identity were affected. This work is drawn from the author’s doctoral dissertation (Te Rito, 2007b) where considerably more detail is available to interested readers. The present paper uses a case study approach with specific hapū (sub-tribe) and whānau (extended family) to identify the key events and outcomes regarding struggles about land and their deeper implications. These particular struggles were primarily fought in the courtrooms in the late 1800s. They illustrate that legal positions were complicated by differences in language, principles, values and methods of two cultural traditions often at conflict with one another – that of the indigenous Māori and that of the colonising Pākehā (British settler). An eventual consequence is that Māori in the area today find themselves with very little land, severely marginalised and in the lowest socio-economic grouping of New Zealand society.