About this research
Project lead: Professor Waikaremoana Waitoki (Ngāti Hako, Ngāti Māhanga), The University of Waikato | Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato
The ACT Party introduced the Treaty Principles Bill in 2024, proclaiming to protect everyone’s equal rights before the law. The Bill has sparked immense debates over the Crown’s attempt to rewrite the articles of te Tiriti o Waitangi and undermine Māori tino rangatiratanga.
It has drawn tangata whenua and tangata Tiriti together to participate in Hīkoi mō te Tiriti and write submissions to vehemently oppose the Bill. Although the Justice Select Committee members have commenced preliminary analyses of the 300,000 submissions, they have missed significant opportunities to centre Māori aspirations and adequately honour this record-level public input on te Tiriti.
Led by the WERO research team, this study seeks to identify the operation of racism in the discussion of Māori and te Tiriti, and solutions to these. To do this, a multi-method analysis of the submissions will be conducted, involving:
1) large language model analyses to identify recurring themes;
2) theory-driven analyses on the intersection of racism and problematic reasoning; and
3) counter-storytelling to amplify responses to racist rhetoric.
We will engage with community, academic, and government stakeholders to share findings on (counter)narratives in the Bill through wānanga and creative outputs, and develop a community-accessible toolkit to aid the public in discerning forms of racism.
Project lead: Professor Waikaremoana Waitoki (Ngāti Hako, Ngāti Māhanga), The University of Waikato | Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato
The ACT Party introduced the Treaty Principles Bill in 2024, proclaiming to protect everyone’s equal rights before the law. The Bill has sparked immense debates over the Crown’s attempt to rewrite the articles of te Tiriti o Waitangi and undermine Māori tino rangatiratanga.
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