Abstract
Authors: Moewaka Barnes & McCreanor (Whariki Research Group, SHORE & Whariki, Massey University)
Focus: Colonisation in Aotearoa (New Zealand) and its impacts on Maori hauora (wellbeing) and whenua (land) within a relational, Maori-centered framework.
Claim: Colonisation has deeply harmed Maori communities, undermining vitality, aspirations and potentials since the 1860s, at an enormous cost to the nation. The relationship between British/settler interests and Maori sovereignty has produced entrenched inequities in health and other social domains.
Proposal: A unified, dynamic, relational Maori concept that positions whenua as the determinant of health could transform prevention, protection and promotion approaches, advancing health equity and just, sustainable futures for all New Zealanders.
Framing: Grounded in te Tiriti o Waitangi breaches and relational sovereignty, with a focus on matauranga Maori, hauora, and planetary health.
Introduction: Colonisation, historical trauma and relational health
Colonisation has produced profound negative consequences for Maori health, wellbeing, and existence, and is part of a broader story affecting Indigenous peoples globally.
Historical trauma framework (Reid et al. 2014) links broad structural change to population-level shocks, multigenerational transmission, and physiological impacts.
The paper traces changes from Cook’s Endeavour voyage (1769) to contemporary conceptions of hauora, whenua and health equity, using a historical-trauma lens.
Cook’s 1769 landing signified imperial domination, white supremacy and racism in multiple forms, catalyzing later colonisation and exploitation.
The first British landfall at Turanga (9 October 1769) began sustained, unequal relations between two very different peoples, shaping later outcomes.
Early health observations by Cook framed Maori as physically robust but with potential health vulnerabilities under colonial conditions; later historians note comparable longevity but with a different burden of disease and nutrition for Maori vs settlers.
Colonising hauora: linking historical trauma to contemporary disparities
The essay uses the historical trauma framework to weave population changes, disease burdens, land alienation, and racism into a coherent narrative of ongoing disparity.
The authors discuss how the Endeavour’s arrival laid groundwork for imperial domination, white supremacy and extractive colonisation that degraded Maori health and vitality over generations.
Data strands used: population change, relative life expectancy, and land alienation as indicators of cultural/economic integrity, alongside racism and privilege as ideological cores of colonisation.
They reference the forensic demography work of Pool & Kukutai to trace Maori and Pakeha (European) population trajectories from Cook’s first visit onward.
Population history and health disparities (key data points)
Indigenous population at first contact (Cook estimates): 100{,}000
Pool & Kukutai revised estimates: around 90{,}000 to 95{,}000 at times, with growth to about 95{,}000 by 1810–1810s, then decline due to epidemics.
1810–1825: Maori population contracts, around 90{,}000; infectious diseases rise.
1825–1840: further decline to about 80{,}000; European population small but increasing with ship visits; new illnesses and weapons introduced.
By 1840: Maori ~42{,}000; European settlers ~2{,}000; English life expectancy around 40 years.
1840s–1890s: Maori population falls to ~42{,}000; high mortality and reduced fertility due to infectious disease, land loss, and economic disruption.
Settler population grows rapidly; Maori land holdings decline to ~60 ext{ percent} by 1890.
1860–1890: period of extreme trauma for Tangata Whenua due to land confiscations, war, and state consolidation (as described by Rusden, Belich, etc.).
1944: Maori population rises to 100{,}870; settler population at 1{,}539{,}978; land ownership falls below 10{,}\%; life expectancy disparity around 15\,\text{years}.
1970: settler population about 2{,}820{,}814; Maori population ~225{,}435; disparity in life expectancy shrinks to about 10\,\text{years}; urbanisation increases.
2013 census: Maori population ~598{,}605; total NZ population ~4{,}242{,}048; median age ~23.9 years; disparities persist.
Since the mid-1990s, life expectancy disparities have remained around 7 years.
Whenua and hauora: land, environment, and health
Māori conceptualisations of whenua: two primary perspectives
Whenua as determinant of wealth (land as property and resource extraction)
Whenua as determinant of health (whenua as living entity with rights and mana)
Table 1 (conceptual relationships with whenua) contrasts these two views:
Whenua as determinant of health vs wealth attitudes are connected to Mauri, Kaitiakitanga, and Manaakitanga.
Key questions under health framing: How can we protect the whenua and retain its integrity? (Mauri, Kaitiakitanga, Manaakitanga themes)
Key questions under wealth framing: How much land/foreshore/rivers can I own and control? (Profit-focused framing)
Consequences of land loss: separation from whenua destabilises place-based whanau, hapu, and iwi identities; disrupts knowledge-practices around land use; increases dependence on colonial economic systems; undermines social fabric.
Lived experience of land loss includes sadness, grief, anger, identity damage, and cultural erosion; not just material harm.
Global parallels: Indigenous peoples in Australia, Canada, US, and beyond have fought to recognise whenua values; examples include Ganges and Ecuador rivers granted rights to exist (human rights for nature).
Te Urewera (2013) and Te Awa Tupua/Whanganui River (2017) cases: rivers granted legal personhood with rights, duties, liabilities; trend toward recognizing land as a living entity with rights; discussions on personhood as a legal tool for Maori aspirations (Exton 2017).
2013–2017 legal reforms signal potential decolonising reforms but remain contested within Crown policy.
2017 Mt Taranaki (Taranaki Maunga) case hints at potential personhood for Crown-owned land and protective litigation.
Conceptual framework: Tangata Whenua Tangata Ora – unity of people with te tai ao (environment); whenua is the holistic base for wellbeing; public health should centralise environments and relationships with environments.
In practice: mana whenua activities include protection, rahui (temporary restrictions), restoration, organic production, eco-forestry, sustainable harvest, mauri restoration, and broader ecological and cultural revitalisation efforts.
Maori models of health and the determinants of hauora
Indigenous health models emphasize holistic, integrated approaches:
Te Whare Tapa Wha (Durie): physical, mental, social, and spiritual health as four sides of a house.
Te Wheke (Pere): octopus with many tentacles representing family, culture, spirituality, and holistic wellbeing.
Te Pae Mahutonga (Durie): four pou (posts) including environmental protection and waiora, along with whanau, culture, physical and mental health, and emotions.
The Royal Commission on Social Policy proposed four pou; te ao turoa (the wider environment) and turangawaewae (place/roots) are pou elements; waiora is environmental protection.
Durie’s Maori health platforms (2003a) describe hauora as constructed from land, language, whānau, marae/hapū, Rangi and Papa (sky and earth), colonisation remnant, adequate opportunity for cultural expression, and full participation in society.
Many Maori scholars frame health as inseparable from whenua; Tangata Whenua Tangata Ora emphasises the unity of people and environment as an ecosystem with visible and invisible dimensions.
Hauora Māori represents a dynamic, unified biopsychosocial system; central aim is to realise the potential of Tangata Whenua Tangata Ora for the collective future.
In contemporary practice, mana whenua are actively contributing to healing and resilience, addressing trauma, rebuilding connections, and strengthening culture through diverse, restorative activities.
Māori methodologies foreground whenua as the primacy determinant, guiding decolonising practice and holistic wellbeing beyond environmental impacts alone.
The social determinants of health and the whenua framework (Table 2)
The authors map Maori conceptualisations to a social determinants of health framework (inspired by the WHO CSDH):
Mauri as life force/bond that ties people to the common centre; Tangata Whenua Tangata Ora integrates kaitiakitanga and manaakitanga as guiding values for hauora carried across domains.
The integrated approach resists partitioning health into isolated domains; instead, it merges domains across environment, culture, whanau, language, and land to promote holistic health.
This framework uses mauri and relationality to unify health, environment, and society, enabling democratic, communitarian participation with space for diverse expertise and lay knowledge.
Table 2 outlines Maori social determinants of health through whenua-centered domains (Maori conceptualisations linked with CSDH framework).
Implications for policy, decolonisation and health equity
Te Tiriti o Waitangi has gradually gained a place in legislation and social life, though with ongoing Crown resistance and partial application.
Health disparities for Maori persist, and current policy is often insufficient; Tribunal findings in WAI 2575 (Stage One, Hauora inquiry) critique Crown health service conduct and policy frameworks as flawed and contributing to inequities; emphasise care that respects Maori sociocultural paradigms as a care-access issue.
Health and Disability System Review (2019) Interim Report recognises western medical dominance and acknowledges that achieving equity requires embracing Maori worldviews of health; calls for public reform and greater engagement with matauranga Maori.
Decolonisation is presented as a central imperative for achieving health equity; without societal transformation, reforms may only superficially address sociocultural paradigms.
Matike Mai Aotearoa (2016) envisions a constitutional order with distinct Maori and Tauiwi domains linked by shared relational space; such transformations are argued as necessary to address historical trauma and to move toward equity.
Health providers increasingly attempt to incorporate Maori approaches to health with models like Te Whare Tapa Wha, Te Wheke, Te Pae Mahutonga, and other kaupapa. The paper argues for a more explicit, systemic decolonisation and matauranga hauora integration.
The authors argue for a shift from land as property to land as a relational, living entity with rights (whenua as personhood) and for significant investment in decolonising concepts (Tangata Whenua Tangata Ora) to underpin policy and applied platforms.
The broader philosophical and ethical implications include: recognizing the rights of nature and land; re-centering relational obligations; rethinking ownership models; and building new governance frameworks that align with Indigenous worldviews while sustaining all NZ citizens.
Practical pathways and examples for action
Public health and policy should reorient toward a whenua-centric determinant of health, connecting ecological integrity with human wellbeing.
Emphasise matauranga Maori in health planning, while fostering cross-cultural collaboration and mutual learning in a decolonising framework.
Promote and safeguard legal personhood for natural entities (e.g., Te Awa Tupua, Te Urewera) as mechanisms to protect mauri and health of land and people.
Support iwi/hapū/whānau-led restoration projects, sustainable land/water management, and kaitiakitanga-based governance.
Encourage planetary health, One Health, and Ecohealth approaches but grounded in te ao Maori concepts and relational ethics.
Invest in long-term research to develop and apply Tangata Whenua Tangata Ora as a holistic policy platform, integrating environmental health, cultural wellbeing, and social equity.
Align health equity work with decolonisation priorities, recognizing that real change requires structural change in governance, law, and social norms.
Ethical, philosophical and real-world relevance
The paper foregrounds ethical considerations about sovereignty, justice, and relational responsibility between people and environments.
It raises philosophical questions about the goodness of current economic systems that treat whenua as a commodity rather than a living relation with rights and mana.
Real-world relevance includes the growing global movement toward rights of nature, legal personhood for rivers and ecosystems, and Indigenous-led health models that blend traditional knowledge with contemporary public health practice.
The narrative connects historical events (Cook’s voyage, land confiscations, epidemics) to present health disparities, urging society to address structural causes as a matter of justice and sustainable futures.
Key numerical references and formulas (LaTeX formatted)
Maori population at contact (Cook): 10^{5} (approximately $100{,}000$) people.
Estimated Maori population early 19th century: 9{,}0000 ext{ to } 9{,}5000? (approx. 90{,}000–95{,}000; used as a range in the text).
Life expectancy at European contact: 40 years.
Maori late 19th century life expectancy: mid-20s, i.e., approximately 25–29 years.
Settler life expectancy: mid-50s.
Land ownership by 1890: 60 ext{%} of land owned by Maori.
1944 Maori population: 100{,}870; Pakeha population: 1{,}539{,}978.
1970 Maori population: 225{,}435; settler population: 2{,}820{,}814.
2013 Maori population: 598{,}605; total NZ population: 4{,}242{,}048; median age: 23.9 years.
Life expectancy disparity: historically around 7 years (post-1990s ongoing).
2013 census figures and later policy reports cited with page references to Tribunal and Health System Review.
Connections to previous and global scholarship
Situates Maori experiences within broader Indigenous health literature (Durie 2003a, 2003b; Paradies 2016; Stephens et al. 2006; Reid et al. 2014; Reid & Robson 2007).
Relates to global discourses on Indigenous health disparities and historical trauma in settler-colonial contexts (e.g., Australia, Canada, US).
Bridges te Tiriti with contemporary health policy and public health practice, advocating decolonisation as a central mechanism for health equity.
Cites institutional analyses and policy reports (WAI 2575, Health and Disability System Review 2019) to ground theoretical claims in current governance challenges and opportunities.
Summary takeaways
Colonisation is framed as a relational, historical process that produced persistent health inequities and cultural disruption for Maori.
A Maori-centric understanding of whenua as the determinant of health offers a transformative framework for health policy and practice, aligning ecological integrity, land rights, cultural identity, and wellbeing.
Recognising land as a living entity with rights (land personhood) and centralising mana whenua in governance could catalyse decolonising reforms and contribute to health equity for all New Zealanders.
Policy reform requires constitutional transformation, matauranga Maori integration, and sustained investment in healing, environmental protection, and equitable access to health services.