Beyond Puao-Te-Ata-Tu: realising the promise of a new day

“…the fundamental barrier to fully enacting genuine power-sharing relationships with Māori is state commitment and willingness to embody, in practical terms, the call for tino rangatiratanga.”

A recently published paper from Whakauae Research revisits the key change messages of the seminal report Puao-Te-Ata-Tu; Realising the Promise of a New Day (Māori Perspective Advisory Committee, 1988). Puao-Te-Ata-Tu was released more than three decades ago by the Ministerial Advisory Committee on a Māori Perspective for the Department of Social Welfare. The report recognised that the social issues facing Māori resulted from failing systems of state provision underpinned by a broader context of colonisation, racism and structural inequity. The newly published paper entitled Beyond Puao-Te-Ata-Tu; Realising the Promise of a New Day summarises the ongoing cacophony of calls for change made, over the past thirty years, to urgently address institutional racism. Among the calls are those resulting from government-initiated reviews and inquiries focused on issues of critical importance for Aotearoa New Zealand that have, without exception, identified profoundly failing state sector systems particularly for Māori. The urgent need for bold transformational change is a key message of this new publication.

The media have focused on the need for “a really brave and courageous act on the part of the Crown ... to authentically engage with Maori” if we are to realise the changes required, in its coverage of the report, published here.

In common with Puao-Te-Ata-Tu, the newly published paper concludes that those in positions of power and influence need to work actively to eliminate the institutional racism pervading our state institutions. It credits Puao-Te-Ata-Tu with providing us with the blueprint for how we begin to restructure our country in the wake of COVID-19.

Beyond Puao-Te-Ata-Tu: realising the promise of a new day is the sixth Te Arotahi paper to be published by Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, New Zealand's Māori Centre of Research Excellence. Amohia Boulton (Ngāti Ranginui, Ngai te Rangi, Ngāti Pukenga; Whakauae Research), Michelle Levy (Waikato-Tainui, Ngāti Mahuta; independent researcher) and Lynley Cvitanovic (Ngāti Pākehā; Whakauae Research) write that our positive whānau, hapū, iwi and Māori community responses to COVID-19 brought to life what is possible for Māori reflecting what Puao-Te-Ata-Tu so clearly articulated. Those responses demonstrate the vast potential that lies within Māori communities, when adequately resourced, to  successfully meet the challenges of modern life.

The paper makes six key recommendations:

1. Engrained, systemic institutional racism is immediately and actively addressed.
2. Constitutional and legislative provision is made for the devolution of power, decision-making and resources in policy, planning and service delivery for Māori.
3. A coordinated, and cross-party state commitment is made to the complete implementation of a transformative agenda for Māori. Such an agenda will necessarily include high-trust, transformative, long-term investment as the new norm.
4. A coordinated cross-party approach is taken to fully support the transformative potential of Whānau Ora and those Māori organisations, agencies, entities and providers operationalising whānau-ora and whānau centred philosophies, principles and approaches.
5. The system-wide changes necessary for transformational change (including a genuine whole-of-systems approach, dismantling of departmental silos and a funding for outcomes) are prioritised and implemented.
6. An equity lens is actively demonstrated in all aspects of state legislation, policymaking and implementation.

Beyond Puao-Te-Ata-Tu: realising the promise of a new day (2020) can be accessed by following this link.