Tikanga Māori
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Tikanga is a Māori term for practices,
customary law A legal custom is the established pattern of behavior within a particular social setting. A claim can be carried out in defense of "what has always been done and accepted by law". Customary law (also, consuetudinary or unofficial law) exists wher ...
, attitudes and principles. Te Aka Māori Dictionary defines it as "customary system of values and practices that have developed over time and are deeply embedded in the social context". More broadly, tikanga has often been defined as a concept incorporating practices and values from ''mātauranga Māori'', or Māori knowledge. Tikanga is translated into the English language with a wide range of meanings—culture, custom, ethic, etiquette, fashion, formality, lore, manner, meaning, mechanism, method, protocol, and style.


Opinions

Māori scholar
Hirini Moko Mead Sir "Sidney" Hirini Moko Haerewa Mead (born 8 January 1927) is a New Zealand anthropologist, historian, artist, teacher, writer and prominent Māori people, Māori leader. Initially training as a teacher and artist, Mead taught in many school ...
states that tikanga can be viewed from several perspectives. One view is that tikanga Māori 'controls interpersonal relationships' as it guides the interactions of meetings, and provides identity to individuals. Another view is through
ethics Ethics is the philosophy, philosophical study of Morality, moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates Normativity, normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches inclu ...
, that tikanga Māori is a practised
code of conduct A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the social norm, norms, rules, and responsibilities or proper practices of an individual party or an organization. Companies' codes of conduct A company code of conduct is a set of rules which is comm ...
. The word tikanga is derived from the Māori word ''tika'' meaning 'right' or 'correct' so it follows that it involves moral judgements about what is the right way of doing something. Speaking on the pertinence of tikanga as a legitimate legal system, scholar Carwyn Jones has argued that the
Treaty of Waitangi The Treaty of Waitangi (), sometimes referred to as ''Te Tiriti'', is a document of central importance to the history of New Zealand, Constitution of New Zealand, its constitution, and its national mythos. It has played a major role in the tr ...
"was signed within the context of Māori legal systems", and that tikanga is inextricably linked to the concept of
mana Mana may refer to: Religion and mythology * Mana (Oceanian cultures), the spiritual life force energy or healing power that permeates the universe in Melanesian and Polynesian mythology * Mana (food), archaic name for manna, an edible substance m ...
. Scholars of Māori legal history view tikanga as having once been the law of the land. Lawyers view contemporary tikanga Māori through the lens of customary law, which comes from an authority rather than a normative system. This is being tested in the New Zealand judicial system through a few legal cases. For an interpretation of the conflicts between Tikanga Maori and Western/
Pākehā ''Pākehā'' (or ''Pakeha''; ; ) is a Māori language, Māori-language word used in English, particularly in New Zealand. It generally means a non-Polynesians, Polynesian New Zealanders, New Zealander or more specifically a European New Zeala ...
jurisprudence, see the case of the burial of James Takamore (2011). In the course of her judgement on that case, Chief Justice of New Zealand Sian Elias stated that "Māori custom according to tikanga is... part of the values of the New Zealand common law." Justice Joe Williams has written and studied tikanga and the New Zealand law. In his future vision, there is a phase "when tikanga Māori fuses with New Zealand’s common law tradition to form a hybrid law of Aotearoa that could be developed by judges, case by base." From about the 1980s, the word tikanga began to appear in common
New Zealand English New Zealand English (NZE) is the variant of the English language spoken and written by most English-speaking New Zealanders. Its language code in ISO and Internet standards is en-NZ. It is the first language of the majority of the populati ...
. This can be attributed to the
Māori renaissance 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 th ...
as well as acts of the New Zealand government including the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 and the Resource Management Act (1991) that include the need for separate consultation with local ''
iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori, roughly means or , and is often translated as "tribe". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, and is typically pluralised as such in English. ...
'' (tribal) representatives. In March 2001, the New Zealand Law Commission released a report on the influence of tikanga Māori on Pākehā (English) law conventions. On 2 July 2011, the Waitangi Tribunal released its report into the Wai 262 claim, ''Ko Aotearoa Tēnei'' ("This is Aotearoa (New Zealand)"). The report considers more than 20 Government departments and agencies and makes recommendations as to reforms of "laws, policies or practices relating to health, education, science, intellectual property, indigenous flora and fauna, resource management, conservation, the Māori language, arts and culture, heritage, and the involvement of Māori in the development of New Zealand’s positions on international instruments affecting indigenous rights." The second volume of the report contains a glossary of te reo Māori terms, including: * tikanga: ''traditional rules for conducting life, custom, method, rule, law'' * tikanga Māori: ''Māori traditional rules, culture'' An example of applied tikanga is an approach by Māori weavers in the gathering of traditional materials such as harakeke. One tikanga is to never cut the inside leaves of the plant, the names of these leaves are the ''rito'' and this is metaphorically linked to growth of humans. Practically it ensures the life cycle of the plant, that the harvesting of the fibre does not kill the plant and it also connects the value of the resource to the people that use it.


See also

* Taha Māori *
Māori culture Māori culture () is the customs, cultural practices, and beliefs of the Māori people of New Zealand. It originated from, and is still part of, Polynesians, Eastern Polynesian culture. Māori culture forms a distinctive part of Culture of New ...
* Māoritanga


References


Further reading

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tikanga Maori Māori culture Māori words and phrases Māori society Customary legal systems Religious practices by religion