HEATHER CAME & ASSOCIATES
PURSUING RACIAL JUSTICE.
Honourable Kāwanatanga Project
Heather Came & Associates is delighted to be involved in a team that secured a Marsden research grant to explore Honourable Kāwanatanga: Preparing for a Tiriti-based future.
Our Honourable Kāwanatanga Royal Society Te Apārangi - Marsden project is a multi-year research programme examining how kāwanatanga authority might be exercised in ways that are truly honourable, relational, and consistent with Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It brings together a transdisciplinary team of Māori and Tauiwi scholars, activists, and policy practitioners who are exploring what kāwanatanga could look like if it were grounded in tino rangatiratanga and ethical relationality rather than colonial control. Drawing on Matike Mai Aotearoa and other Indigenous constitutional models, the project interrogates current governance practices and
generates alternative frameworks for decision-making that embed accountability to Māori
authority and aspirations.
Through archival analysis, policy review, and collaborative wānanga with Māori leaders, public servants, and community partners, the project seeks to surface both the barriers to and the opportunities for transformation within Crown systems. It theorises pathways toward an honourable state that upholds mana motuhake, values whanaungatanga and utu, and enables genuine power-sharing. The work contributes to national and international debates about decolonisation, Indigenous–state relations, and ethical governance, positioning Aotearoa as a potential exemplar of Tiriti-based constitutionalism and antiracist statecraft.
Meet the team
The research team: Heather Came, Clive Aspin, Grant Berghan,
Mershen Pillay, Leah Waipuka Bain, Julio Pereira and Joy Ratima.
Clive Aspin (Ngāti Maru, Ngāti Whanaunga, Ngāti Tamaterā) is a senior kaupapa Māori health researcher based at Te Herenga Waka with a long-term interest in culture, gender and sexuality. In 2023 he was awarded the Te Rangi Hiroa medal for contributions to societal transformation and change.
Heather Came (Pākehā) has 32 years’ experience in antiracism work as a Tiriti worker with a professional background in critical public health prior to founding Heather Came & Associates.
Mershen Pillay (Tauiwi) research focuses on decoloniality and he is based at Massey University. He has long advocated for healthcare frameworks to address inequities under apartheid and in a post-1994, democratic South Africa.
Grant Berghan (Ngāpuhi, Ngātiwai and Te Rarawa) has extensive senior management experience working for decades in Māori health development and the public sector. He is a kaumātua and co-facilitator of nationwide Māori leadership programmes.
Leah Waipuka-Bain (Ngāti Kahungunu mē Rangitāne ki Wairarapa) brings expertise in policy development and antiracism. Leah has a background in the education and health sectors, as well as senior leadership.
Associate Professor Julio Pereira (Brazilian) has a background in statistics and in Bayesian
approaches for modelling spatial data.
Joy Ratima completes the team as Project Manager. She is experienced in event planning and office and team management and is excited to put her organisational skills to use in such a meaningful project.
Professors Dominic O’Sullivan (Charles Sturt University) and Tim McCreanor (Massey University) and are both advisors on this project. Dominic (Te Rarawa, Irish) is a political scientist whose research focuses on Indigenous political theory, Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and the intersections of citizenship, governance, and decolonisation in Aotearoa and beyond. Tim McCreanor (Pākehā) is a social psychologist and discourse analyst recognised for his
pioneering work on racism, communication, and the social construction of Māori–Pākehā
relations within media, policy, and public discourse.
Standing in solidarity with the team is our critical research whānau. They are a collective of scholars, practitioners, and leaders committed to social justice, decolonisation, and transformative change. Grounded in whanaungatanga, manaakitanga, and kōtahitanga, it operates as a scholarly community of care and critique. A critical research whānau blends rigorous analysis with political commitment, emphasising ethical, relational, and
emancipatory processes of knowledge creation guided by collective accountability and
critical friendship.
Our critical research whānau includes Professor El-Shadan Tautolo, Ngaire Rae, Dr Isla Emery-Whittington, Carl Chenery, Georgina Davis, Lincoln Dam, Catherine Delahunty, Wiremu Woodard, and Dr Maria Baker.
Stage one of the study
Inspired by Matike Mai, the overall aim of this study is to interrogate and reconceptualise honourable kāwanatanga for the contemporary political context. We seek to understand how the Crown and other organisations can fully uphold their Te Tiriti responsibilities to ensure equitable governance, policy, and outcomes—key to a fair and just Aotearoa.
In stage one of our study, we will be identifying key conceptual and historical pou of honourable kāwanatanga, drawing on interviews with elders, local and Southern evidence, and through caucused wānanga.
From March to September 2025, we interviewed twenty Māori and Tauiwi elders and emerging movement leaders. They have shared rich, nuanced and complex perspectives informed by decades of lived experience working with Te Tiriti. We are in the process, with the help of NVivo of sense-making those stories to identify emerging themes, potent
metaphors and potential pou of honourable kāwanatanga to inform publications and later work in the study.
That elder data was shapeshifted into provocations to inform a gathering of ~70 practitioners, leaders and scholars passionate about Tiriti justice during our wānanga held late October in Wellington. The wānanga centered on collective learning and dialogue and incorporated whakawhanaungatanga, a project overview, then tāngata whenua and tāngata Tiriti caucuses explored elder provocations, with kapa tī breaks. After lunch - some participants also took the option to join the Rā Whakamana solidarity event - then the group reconvened for reflection and further caucus work, and deepened their understanding of honourable kāwanatanga. The day concluded with collective feedback, prioritisation, and a poroporoake to close in connection and purpose. A Report and publication(s) are being drafted from the wānanga and pou content identified to inform stage two when will be conducting a nationwide survey about how organisations are
engaging with Te Tiriti.
In October we also launched expressions of interest for an edited book with the working title Decolonisation and Kāwanatanga: Indigenous and Crown Relations in the Global South. We are seeking contributions to explore the meaning and practice of kāwanatanga within Indigenous–Crown relations in Aotearoa and other parts of the Global
South. We welcome case studies, theoretical analyses, and visionary perspectives on how honourable kāwanatanga can advance decolonisation and inform future governance and policy. Possible key themes include sovereignty, Indigenous rights, policy innovation, comparative treaty analysis, and just futures. Abstracts (300–400 words) and short bios are due 31 January 2026, with final chapters (6,000–8,000 words) due 31 December 2026,
ahead of publication on 30 June 2027. The editors are Clive Aspin, Mershen Pillay, and Leah
Waipuka-Bain.
From December to February, we are fortunate to be hosting a Ngā Pae Māramatanga new horizons internship. Kahukura our intern will be analysing organisational submissions opposing the 2025 Treaty Principles Bill to deepen understanding of honourable kāwanatanga across sectors such as health, education, unions, iwi and hapū. The intern will complete a literature review, data analysis, and reflective thematic analysis to produce a research report and co-authored article, contributing new insights into fair and Tiriti-aligned governance in Aotearoa.
Publications
Through ongoing dialogue with our extended research team and networks opportunistic papers are likely to be semi-regularly publishing. Do let us know if you are interested in collaborating collectively we have considerable experience writing for academic publication.
Came, H., O’Sullivan, D. T., Berghan, G., & McCreanor, T. “Needs not race”: A discursive Tiriti analysis of the 2024 New Zealand cabinet circular on needs-based service provision. Ethnicities, 0(0), 14687968251381847. https://doi.org/10.1177/14687968251381847
In this paper Heather and Grant collaborated with Tim and Dominic advisors to this project.
Following the 2023 change of government, dishonourable kāwanatanga has been on the rise with the influence of Te Tiriti o Waitangi in public policy being steadily eroded. This paper applies Discursive Tiriti Analysis to the 2024 Cabinet Circular on Needs-based Service Provision, which sought to remove ‘race’ as a criterion for public services. We argued that this move reframes Te Tiriti as a racial issue, promoting assimilation under the guise of equality and denying Māori distinct authority and engagement. Our analysis exposes how the Circular’s rhetoric of “one people” masks systemic inequities and undermines mana motuhake. Te Tiriti affirms Māori rights to exercise authority over Māori affairs; restoring this authority is essential to achieving genuine, substantive equality and decolonising public policy in Aotearoa.
Gane, R, Aspin, C & Came, H. (In press). Imagining Honourable Kāwanatanga: Insights from
Waitangi Tribunal Reports, AlterNative.
This paper was led by Ruby Gane through a summer studentship at Ngā Pae Maramatanga supervised by Clive and Heather. Rather than focus on dishonourable kāwanatanga this paper addresses the under-researcher area of honourable kāwanatanga through examining how the Waitangi Tribunal has articulated honourable kāwanatanga in their reports between 1975 and 2025. We identified four key themes: it must be limited, qualified by duties, balanced with tino rangatiratanga, and able to evolve. The paper situates these insights within broader socio-political shifts and Indigenous governance debates, arguing that honourable kāwanatanga—grounded in reasonableness, good faith, and relational ethics—is essential for upholding Te Tiriti justice and fostering reconciliation in Aotearoa.