Te Tiriti o Waitangi policy

• Affirming the te reo Māori texts of He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni 1835 and Te Tiriti o Waitangi 1840 as the founding constitutional documents
• A Waitangi Tribunal that is fully resourced and has binding decision-making authority
• Mutually agreed resolution of, and restitution for, outstanding historical and contemporary breaches
• Return of whenua to Māori — Hoki Whenua Mai — as central to restoring wellbeing
• Constitutional transformation along the lines envisioned by Matike Mai
• Upholding UNDRIP and the Mataatua Declaration on Cultural and Intellectual Property Rights of Indigenous Peoples

The party amended its Charter in 2001 to recognise Te Tiriti o Waitangi as the country’s founding document and Māori as tangata whenua. The party and its political office were restructured in 2022, and this policy was developed by Te Rōpū Pounamu, the party’s Māori member collective.

The policy states that Māori values and cultural practices expressed through tikanga and kawa were the first laws in Aotearoa, continue to guide Māori, and have been recognised by the courts as part of the country’s law. It commits the party to explaining concepts from te ao Māori whenever it uses them.

It affirms tino rangatiratanga of whānau, hapū and iwi over their whenua, awa, moana, kāinga and taonga, both tangible and intangible — including mātauranga Māori, rongoā, tikanga and kawa, and taonga species — and commits to devolving power and resources to tangata whenua-led decision-making.

The policy draws a distinction worth reading carefully: it says rangatira did not sign Te Tiriti to co-govern taonga over which they already had authority, while acknowledging that co-governance can enable progress towards what it calls a mature Tiriti-based relationship.

It describes colonisation and Tiriti breaches as having disconnected generations of Māori from their land, treats Hoki Whenua Mai as central to restoring cultural, physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing, and states a Crown obligation to prevent further breaches, including environmental degradation and biodiversity loss.

The policy attributes inequitable systems and disparities to the systemic racism of settler colonialism, notes further disparity for rangatahi, takatāpui and tāngata whaikaha, and seeks equitable outcomes across health, education, justice, te taiao, housing and economic wellbeing.

Rather than sitting as a standalone kaupapa Māori policy, it requires every other Green policy to align with it. The party says Te Rōpū Pounamu’s direction on any policy is accepted as binding, and that every full policy review seeks mātauranga Māori and applies a Critical Tiriti Analysis to draft content.