Tikanga Māori Tikanga is a Māori concept incorporating practices and values from mātauranga Māori, Māori knowledge. Tikanga is translated into the English language with a wide range of meanings — culture, custom, ethic, etiquette, fashion, formali ...

(Māori culture or practice), a (runaka in

Southern Māori dialect Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, M ...

) is a tribal council, assembly, board or boardroom. The term can also be a verb meaning "to discuss in an assembly". An

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, an ...

(tribe) can have one governing rūnanga and many sub rūnanga, in such cases it can be used to mean the subdivision of a tribe governed by that council. It is also used for non tribal affiliations as with the CTU Runanga a sub union for

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

workers. The leader or representative of a rūnanga is sometimes referred to as Te Upoku o Te Rūnanga (literally "The head of the rūnanga").

Historical organization and practice

The Rūnanga System (1861–1863) constituted a system of Māori self-government devised by Governor George Grey, to be comparable to the

provinces A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...

. The plan was for them to be led by European commissioners. The system was never fully implemented and was cancelled due to the

New Zealand Wars The New Zealand Wars took place from 1845 to 1872 between the New Zealand colonial government and allied Māori on one side and Māori and Māori-allied settlers on the other. They were previously commonly referred to as the Land Wars or the M ...

Modern practice

Rūnanga as a broad definition can be seen as the way groups make or attempt to make decisions. Māori groups and councils debate and discuss issues in a vast array of different ways which, while informed by the past, have changed greatly over the last century.

References

Māori words and phrases Māori society Committees {{Māori-stub