Māori sovereignty

The Māori protest movement is a broad indigenous rights movement in New Zealand. While this movement has existed since Europeans first colonised New Zealand, its modern form emerged in the early 1970s and has focused on issues such as the Treaty of Waitangi, Māori land rights, the Māori language and culture, and racism. It has generally been allied with the left wing although it differs from the mainstream left in a number of ways. Most members of the movement have been Māori but it has attracted some support from non-Māori New Zealanders and internationally, particularly from other indigenous peoples. Notable successes of the movement include establishment of the Waitangi Tribunal, the return of some Māori land, and the Māori language being made an official language of New Zealand. The movement is part of a broader Māori Renaissance.

There is a long history of Māori resistance to Pākehā (New Zealanders of European ancestry). Many Maori embraced most aspects of European culture while retaining many aspects of their own culture. From about 1500 Maori developed an increasing warlike culture that is believed to have its origins in climate cooling and other natural disasters which led to increasing fighting. The culmination of this was the enormous pre musket battle of Hingakaka near Te Awamutu about 1800 when 16,000 warriors took part and about 1600 died according to the Tainui historian Pei Te Hurinui-Jones. From 1805 to 1843, Māori tribes continued to fight amongst themselves during the musket wars. From the 1840s to the 1870s, various Māori chiefs and, later, parts of iwi (tribes) fought against Pākehā settlers and later soldiers, in the 1863-4 New Zealand Land Wars. They also used petitions, court cases, deputations to the British monarch and New Zealand and British governments, passive resistance and boycotts to try to achieve their goal of a separate Maori political system . Some of this resistance came from religious cults such as Pai Marire and Ringatu. Prophets such as Te Kooti, Rua Kenana and Te Whiti are sometimes seen as early Māori activists. The Māori King movement was also an important focus of resistance, especially in the Taranaki and Waikato regions,although the Taranaki support for the king movement was limited with Wiremu Kingi, the dominant Taranaki chief, suddenly returning to Taranaki when government gunboats appeared in the Waikato River at Rangiriri . Some Māori also worked within Pākehā systems such as the Parliament of New Zealand in order to resist land loss and cultural imperialism. Ngata was one of the most important and influential Māori MP's who tried to combine the benefits of both cultures for Māori. He was forced to resign when he became involved in one of the biggest cases of mismanagement and maladministration which amounted to half a million pounds, ever seen in New Zealand.

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