He Waka Tē Ai Tahuri Waitangi Tribunal Thursdays is where I return to the Tribunal’s early reports, not as history or as legal analysis, but as maps of how the state is designed and how its policy advisory, delivery, and regulatory systems work. After the Motiti Island report, we turn to three short reports in succession: Wai…

I had intended to be quiet today, in honour of our shared national day. But the Prime Minister did something significant yesterday that will likely be misreported or weaponised for other political purposes, and I think it matters that one or two people call attention to it. Christopher Luxon structured his Waitangi address around the…

Waitangi Tribunal Thursdays is where I return to the Tribunal’s reports, not as history alone but as maps of how the state’s policy advisory and regulatory systems are designed and how they still work. Each post asks what these findings reveal about who gets heard, what gets silenced, and how legitimacy is built or denied….

Last week I traced five patterns in the Waitangi Tribunal archive: constitutional arguments flattened into regulatory rules, regulations and rules displacing tikanga, institutional self-protection through performative change, allyship disrupting the sequence, and silence functioning as policy. Today, I want to ask what those patterns mean, specifically what they reveal about the structure of the state, and…

This is the slower, more thoughtful essay on the Waitangi Tribunal reports I promised you. It is in two parts. For the past several months, the Waitangi Tribunal Thursday series has worked through the early reports one by one, reading them not as historical documents but as diagnostic evidence of how the state’s policy advisory…

He mihi tēnei ki ngā Iwi me Hapū katoa, ki a rātou i tū ki mua i te Taraipiunara i ngā tau tōmua. Nā koutou i whakatakoto te ara. This post pauses to consolidate. Over the past four months, we’ve worked through the foundational Waitangi Tribunal reports, and what began as individual cases has resolved…

Waitangi Tribunal Thursdays is where I return to the Tribunal’s reports as a road map for how the state is designed and how its policy advisory system works. This five-part series on WAI 11 has traced the journey from institutional silence to ongoing negotiation. Today, as we close this series, Tīpuna Reo is back before the Tribunal again: same…

Waitangi Tribunal Thursdays is where I return to the Tribunal’s reports, not just as history, but as maps of how the state was designed and how its policy advisory system still works. This five-part series on WAI 11 traces the constitutional journey from institutional silence to ongoing negotiation. The first post examined how the state structured itself…

Waitangi Tribunal Thursdays is where I return to the older Tribunal’s reports, not as history alone but as maps of how the state was designed and how its policy advisory system still works. This five-part series on WAI 11 traces the journey from institutional silence to ongoing negotiation. The first post examined how the state structured itself…

Waitangi Tribunal Thursdays is where I return to the Tribunal’s reports, not as history alone but as maps of how the state was designed and how its policy advisory system still works. I apologise for the delay in this series: I did not think posting an analysis of how the state learns to listen while…

Waitangi Tribunal Thursdays is where I return to the Tribunal’s reports, not as history alone but as maps of how the state was designed and how it still works. Each post asks what these findings reveal about the architecture of public policy in Aotearoa: who gets heard, what gets silenced, and how legitimacy is built…

Waitangi Tribunal Thursdays is not just a catalogue of claims. It is a personal inquiry into the state’s policy advisory system under pressure: who is heard, what counts as expertise, and how legitimacy frays when the Crown is challenged. This week, I pause the timeline deliberately before WAI 9 and WAI 10, because the next…

Waitangi Tribunal Thursdays is where I return to the early Tribunal reports, not just as records of truth and reconciliation but as maps of how the state’s policy advisory system weakens under pressure. Each report shows us who is heard, what counts as evidence, and how legitimacy is either built or denied. This week, the…

I’ve been away for a week or so, catching my breath after wrapping up a couple of big projects. I found my way back through music: last week’s theme was Massive Attack. I can’t lie, “Unfinished Sympathy” on repeat is my happy place. That slow-building track that starts sparse and grows into something enormous, where…

Two quiet pages that echo today E te rangatira, Tarsh Kemp, moe mai rā i te moenga roa. Haere atu rā ki te huihuinga o te kahurangi, ki te kāhui o ngā mātua tūpuna. Ko tō reo i ngā whare kōrero, ko tō ūpoko pakaru mō te iwi Māori, ko tō ūmanga mō te tika…

From advisory state to advisory system In 1983, the number one song in the world was “Every Breath You Take” by The Police. Often mistaken for romantic, the song is unmistakably about surveillance, control, and possession: a chilling refrain that echoed the mood of 1983 far more than most listeners realised. Around the world, 1983…

Kaituna River : When Engineering Met Tikanga He mihi tēnei ki ngā rangatira o Ngāti Pikiao, ki a Sir Charles Bennett, ki a Pokiha Hemana, ki a Stanley Newton, ki a Irikau Kingi, ki a Bob Kuni Roberts, ki ngā tangata katoa i kaha ai ki te whakamau i ngā tikanga o Te Tiriti. Moe…

The Welcome Bay Sewage Claim Firstly, a quick correction and some transparency. My last Waitangi Tribunal post had a couple of errors. So, thank you to those who offered to peer review some of this work. I’m ever grateful, and in advance, I say thank you. Secondly, thanks also to the trolls who hate this…

Waiau Pa, regulation and rules without ears E ngā mana, e ngā reo, tēnei te mihi ki a T.E. Kirkwood, mō te ūmanga ki te tiaki i ngā tikanga o te Whatapaka, ā, ki a M.R. McLarin hoki, mō te tū pakari i te taha o ngā hapori katoa. He wā poto tonu tēnei, engari…

Joe Hawke and Others: Fisheries Regulations He mihi tēnei ki ngā rangatira kua wehe atu ki te pō. Moe mai rā, e Dame Whina Cooper rāua ko Joe Hawke. Moe mai rā ki a koutou katoa i takahi i te huarahi mō te mana o te iwi, ā, kua hoki atu ki te ao wairua….