Settler/Invader Identity and Belonging in Aotearoa New Zealand: Critiquing “Tāngata Tiriti” and Moving Toward the Collective Future

This Kaupapa Māori writing inquiry explores “Tāngata Tiriti” (People of the Treaty) as a settler/invader identity term in Aotearoa New Zealand. Derived from the failed policy platform of “biculturalism” and “Indigenous inclusion,” Tāngata Tiriti is a byproduct of neoliberalism and settler/invader colonialism that fails to provide for Indigenous inclusion, mana motuhake (Indigenous sovereignty) and tino rangatiratanga (self-determination). This article argues that Tāngata Tiriti should be abandoned due to the 2014 paradigm shift surrounding Te Tiriti o Waitangi (Te Tiriti) and mana motuhake from the Te Paparahi o Te Raki report and the author’s subsequent research on non-signatory hapu and iwi. Pākehā settler/invader perspectives on Tāngata Tiriti are compared with Ta¯ngata Moana and Asian scholarly understandings. The author advocates adopting Ta¯ngata Moana thinking around letting Ma¯ori as mana whenua lead “wayfinding” and “meaning-making” to define allyship and promote a “collective future” together based on Ma¯ori constitutional values that are generally universal throughout Pacific cultures. Instead of settler/invader identity constructs and the doctrine of the nation as a White possession, movement toward a collective future must begin from a place of sovereign relationality. The pedagogy of teaching Te Tiritimust change, the ill-conceived Ta¯ngata Tiriti identitymust be abandoned, and “New Zealand” as a settler/invader colonial enterprise must end. Our future must be post-settler/invader colonial and post-Tiriti and must recognize unceded mana motuhake or sovereignty.