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25 Waikato L. Rev. 41 (2017)
More than a Mere Shadow: The Colonial Agenda of Recent Treaty Settlements

handle is hein.journals/waik25 and id is 47 raw text is: MORE THAN A MERE SHADOW? THE COLONIAL AGENDA OF RECENT TREATY SETTLEMENTS By MICK STRACK AND DAVID GOODWIN* I. INTRODUCTION The Treaty settlement process is now well entrenched in the New Zealand government's agenda.' Through it, the Crown has recognised historic breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi and aims to settle those, assuming that this will be the end of the matter. The settlement process has enjoyed some high profile economic successes, which include wider contributions to the national economy,2 but there has also been some criticism of the ways Maori are still suffering as a result of a colonial mind-set on the part of the state. This is manifested in the manner in which agendas have been set for negotiations; limits defined to what can be claimed; decisions about which individuals and groups are worthy of engagement with the state (in other words, picking thewinners and the losers); the requirement for indigenous groups to create western-style corporate (and capitalist) structures even to begin negotiations; and the modes and methods of subsequent settlement allocations. Indigenous groups are left frustrated by a reluctance on the part of the Crown to let them assert their self-determination (tino rangatiratanga), and leaving them still seeking scraps of recognition from the colonial table and being expected to be grateful for whatever is offered. While New Zealand's Treaty settlement process and outcomes have been criticised in a rather piecemeal and disconnected manner,' in Canada, Coulthard has addressed Crown and First Nations relationships more coherently and, alongside some practical examples, has applied a more theoretical critique of those relationships.4 Coulthard sees conventional settlements between * Dr Mick Strack, Senior Lecturer, National School of Surveying, University of Otago, mick.strack@otago.ac.nz and Dr David Goodwin, Senior Lecturer, National School of Surveying, University of Otago, david.goodwin@otago. ac.nz. 1 See Office of Treaty Settlements <www.govt.nz/organisations/office-of-treaty-settlements/>. 2 For example, the Ngai Tahu settlement discussed later in this article. 3 See, for example, A Mikaere Settlement of Treaty Claims: Full and Final or Fatally Flawed? (1997) 17 NZULR 425; Malcolm Birdling Healing the Past or Harming the Future: Large Natural Groupings and the Waitangi Settlement Process (2004) 2 NZJPIL 259; C Coxhead Where are the Negotiations in the Direct Negotiations of Treaty Settlements? (2002) 10 Waikato Law Review 13; Andrew Erueti M~ori Rights to Freshwater: The Three Conceptual Models of Indigenous Rights (2016) 24 Waikato Law Review 58; Linda Te Aho The 'False Generosity' of Treaty Settlements - Innovation and Contortion in A Erueti (ed) International Indigenous Rights in Aotearoa New Zealand (Victoria University Press, Wellington, 2017) 99. 4 See Glen S Coulthard Subjects of Empire: Indigenous Peoples and the 'Politics of Recognition' in Canada (2007) 6 Contemporary Political Theory 437; Glen Sean Coulthard Red Skin White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition (University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 2014).

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