“A Useful and Self-respecting Citizenship”: Māori as Citizens in the Quest for Welfare in the Modern Aotearoa New Zealand State

Māori have persistently sought autonomy in decision-making regarding Māori social outcomes and in identifying Māori conceptions of citizenship that may differ from universalist understandings of citizenship. Language-based evidence and social and legal history suggest a Māori understanding of citizenship that is not only protective but perhaps also positive, confirming relational ways of doing things, under a Māori authority. One of those “ways of doing things” has been using collective processes in order to assist Māori individuals and collectives to attain basic physical and material well-being or welfare. An examination of welfare law and development in Aotearoa New Zealand is able to reveal both Māori persistence in having Māori notions of citizenship fully heard and the sheer difficulty in having such notions recognised broadly.