Toitū Te Mana:A Meditation on Mana Motuhake, The White Possessive, Settler Colonialism, Te Tiriti o Waitangi and The Collective Future of Aotearoa New Zealand

Toitū Te Mana examines mana motuhake (Indigenous sovereignty) in Aotearoa New Zealand and interrogates the constitutional dominance of state sovereignty through Aileen Moreton-Robinson’s concept of the “white possessive,” here reinterpreted as patriarchal white sovereignty. Situated within the emerging field of Indigenous Politics in Political Science, the thesis comprises eight double-blind, peer-reviewed journal sole-authored articles published between 2016 and 2024, integrated through a sustained constitutional and theoretical argument. The study centres the perspectives of non-signatory hapū and iwi, whose political status and historical experiences have been marginalised within mainstream Treaties of Waitangi scholarship. It challenges the entrenched government and academic orthodoxy that describes Te Tiriti as a “foundational document” of the state. Rather than treating the Treaties of Waitangi as uncontested constitutional origins, the thesis demonstrates how such narratives operate to reaffirm Crown authority while obscuring the enduring mana motuhake of hapū and iwi. By foregrounding non-signatory communities, the research exposes how Treaty-centric governance can function as a mechanism of settler/invader colonial containment rather than recognition. The project emerged from sustained engagement with kaumātua and hapū members beginning in 2016, shaped by personal encounters with racism and grounded in Te Ao Māori epistemologies. Through Kaupapa Māori post-qualitative research, wānanga, archival research, philosophical and community-accountable methodologies, the thesis situates mana motuhake within lived Indigenous experience rather than abstract constitutional theory. This reflexive and relational approach disrupts dominant academic paradigms by privileging whakapapa, local narrative, and Indigenous political thought and values as constitutional foundations. Across its published components, the thesis analyses how bicultural policy frameworks, identity politics, historical and reconciliation discourse frequently reproduce settler/invader colonial power while appearing inclusive. It examines how state-driven governance models and policy frameworks marginalise non-signatory hapū and iwi, limiting the scope of recognised authority to forms compatible with the government’s patriarchal white sovereignty. Cultural expressions such as mōteatea and waiata-a-ringa are mobilised as political texts, revealing the historical and contemporary exclusion of Indigenous voices and illuminating the systemic structures that sustain settler colonial dominance. This thesis is the first sustained study to theorise the constitutional position of non-signatory hapū and iwi as a structural gap within Treaty-centred bicultural governance. It argues that their persistent misrecognition reflects a systemic denial of Indigenous sovereignty. Rather than recognising mana motuhake and implementing constitutional transformation, Government frameworks reproduce paternalistic control aligned with settler/invaderism and assimilation narratives. In doing so, the thesis advances the concept of patriarchal white sovereignty as the organising logic of the modern state in Aotearoa New Zealand. The thesis aligns with and extends the findings of the Waitangi Tribunal that sovereignty was never ceded by signatory hapū and iwi. However, it moves beyond declaratory affirmation to articulate a mana motuhake-centred constitutional horizon grounded in tikanga (Māori law), Māori values, and relational accountability. It calls for a shift away from colonial constitutional paradigms toward a political future in which hapū and iwi jurisdiction is recognised as primary rather than derivative. Ultimately, Toitū Te Mana contributes to Indigenous political theory by reframing Treaty debates, orthodoxy and the Indigenous policy inclusion framework called biculturalism through the lens of non-signatory sovereignty, challenging paternalistic state narratives, and advancing mana motuhake as both analytic framework and constitutional imperative. It reasserts Indigenous agency while exposing the ongoing necessity of confronting patriarchal white sovereignty in Aotearoa New Zealand.