Call for papers special issue of Sites: Exploring the many dimensions of Honourable Kāwanatanga

We are living in a time where the shape and overreach of Crown authority is up for debate. Every week seems to bring another reminder of the urgent need for systemic honourable kāwanatanga. Against this backdrop, Clive Aspin and I have opened a call for submissions for a special issue of Sites Journal of social anthropology and cultural studies of the Pacific Region that asks a deceptively simple question: what might kāwanatanga look like if it was truly honourable?

For some, honourable kāwanatanga is about constitutional restoration; for others, it is a lived ethic—an everyday practice of respect, accountability, good faith and relationality. It is also a challenge: to the Crown, to institutions, to researchers, to ourselves. The intent of Te Tiriti was never managerial oversight or delegated benevolence. It was a relationship. A promise. A framework for power that assumed Māori authority would continue in full strength, with limited kāwanatanga exercised carefully and responsibly alongside it.

This special issue is an invitation to wrestle with that promise.

We are seeking work that critiques, unsettles, or expands the concept—whether through political theory, iwi or hapū perspectives, sector case studies, Critical Tiriti Analysis, creative forms, or stories from the community frontlines. We want pieces that sit comfortably inside the deep currents of Indigenous thought, Pacific relationality, kaupapa Māori methodologies and the comparative struggles of the global south. And we welcome contributions that expose the tensions, blockages and contradictions that show up whenever the Crown tries to “share” power but cannot fully release control. 

The timing feels significant. With the Waitangi Tribunal’s WAI 3300 constitutional inquiry underway, and with renewed interest in Matike Mai options for the future, conversations about governance are moving again—sometimes cautiously, sometimes with frustration, sometimes with fierce hope. Our communities are asking: what would it take for the Crown to behave honourably? And what might flourish if it finally did?

As co-editors, we hold this kaupapa with deep respect. We hope that the special issue becomes a meeting place where analysts, scholars, storytellers, activists, and visionaries can place their insights, provocations, and dreams for a Tiriti-aligned future. We don’t need uniformity. We need courage, generosity, imagination, and a willingness to sit in the complexity of this moment.

If these questions are tugging at you, consider sending us an abstract. Whether you are analysing a specific sector, theorising new constitutional pathways, documenting rangatiratanga in practice, or offering a creative response to Crown–tangata whenua relationships, your voice is welcome here. The future of honourable kāwanatanga will not emerge from a single discipline or worldview—it will be shaped through collective thought and relational accountability.

The full call for papers including submission dates and criteria, is available is here . We look forward to reading what you have to say, and to weaving together a special issue that helps push this conversation forward. Sometimes scholarship is simply another form of organising. This is one of those times.

For more information email Joyaratima@gmail.com