A Loving Excavation: Uncovering the Constitutional Culture of the Māori Demos

Abstract

In 2000 Professor Alex Frame suggested that, rather than build the perfect edifice for the New Zealand constitution, we ought to engage in a scholarly process of ‘loving excavation’ in order to determine the critical values and institutions of our society for our present and future needs. Subsequently, Dr Matthew Palmer in 2007 identified pragmatism, egalitarianism, and authoritarianism as three major cultural values in New Zealand constitutionality. This article argues that there is also a distinctive and constantly evolving Māori constitutional culture with values directly relevant to the New Zealand constitution. This culture is discoverable by way of textual and linguistic evidence for 19th and 20th century Māori political practices. This paper presents some limited linguistic evidence about the certain highly prominent terms that have a notable presence in a set of constitutionally relevant Māori language texts derived from the Legal Māori Corpus, a large body of Māori language texts from between 1828 and 2009. Using such primary information and as further secondary research, this article identifies particular Māori attitudes as to how the exercise of civic decision-making ought to be carried out.

Keywords: Maori, constitutionalism, Maori language, New Zealand constitution