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International Women’s Day and Mana Wāhine in Aotearoa

March 12, 2021 at 1:59 PM

From the NZFVC

The theme for International Women's Day (IWD) 2021 (celebrated on 8 March globally) is ‘Choose to Challenge’. In line with this theme, this article highlights the Mana Wāhine claim taken to the Waitangi Tribunal alleging prejudice to wāhine Māori as a result of Treaty breaches by the Crown.

The Waitangi Tribunal’s Kaupapa Inquiry programme is designed to provide a pathway to hear nationally significant claim issues that affect Māori as a whole or a section of Māori in similar ways. 

The Wai 2700 Mana Wāhine Inquiry will inquire into claims which allege prejudice to Māori women arising from Crown breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi with damage to their customary roles and relationships with their whenua, whakapapa and mātauranga, with serious prejudicial consequences for their social, economic, cultural and spiritual well-being, and their access to leadership roles.

The Waitangi Tribunal’s Kaupapa Inquiry programme was announced in 2015, with the Mana Wāhine Kaupapa inquiry (Wai 2700) formally initiated in December 2018. However, the original claim was made in 1993 by 16 leaders - Dame Areta Koopu, Dame Whina Cooper, Dame Mira Szaszy, Ripeka Evans, Dr Erihapeti Murchie, Dame Georgina Kirby, Dame June Mariu, Violet Pou, Hine Potaka, Dame Aroha Reriti-Crofts, Dr Papaarangi Reid, Donna Awatere-Huata, Lady Rose Henare, Katerina Hoterene, Te Para (Mabel) Waititi, and Kare Cooper-Tate – and was triggered by the removal of Dame Mira Szaszy from the shortlist of appointees to the Treaty of Waitangi Fisheries Commission. 

The confirmed scope for the inquiry outlines a set of contextual or frame of reference hearings proposed by the claimants which provide a tūāpapa for the Inquiry and cover the tikanga of mana wāhine and the pre-colonial understanding of wāhine in te ao Māori. These contextual hearings (tūāpapa) will form the baseline against which Crown breaches of Te Tiriti can be considered for the balance of the Inquiry. 

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