Awardee: Linda Te Aho (Ngāti Koroki Kahukura, Waikato-Tainui), University of Waikato
The Awardee will undertake the Whakaaweawe Impact and Transformation Grant titled Tikanga and the State - Selected Papers of Sir E. Taihākurei Durie.
This collection brings together published and unpublished papers by Tā E. Taihākurei Durie, organised around the theme of hapū and Māori communities as the location of Māori authority. While Durie’s 1994 Custom Law paper is pre-eminent in bringing custom law into the realm of jurisprudence, the collection spans a remarkable range of papers and reports written over four decades, each exploring different facets of tikanga.
Durie’s approach to tikanga consistently reflects attention to Māori interests in Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the perspectives of later settlers, and the role of the Crown. A key theme that emerges is the legacy of Native Land Court processes, which were conducted without adequate regard for tikanga and were primarily driven by the Crown’s purpose of acquiring Māori land.
The collected papers are of both historical and future relevance. They include excerpts from Waitangi Tribunal reports over which Durie presided and authored, offering in-depth interpretations of the Treaty, customary tenure, customary systems of fishing and waterway management, and the underlying issues of ownership that challenge rangatiratanga. Many of the papers were presented to diverse audiences in Aotearoa and internationally, illuminating Te Ao Māori on its own terms.