Presented by Metiria Stanton Turei – social activist, lawyer and former co-leader of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand

The Mana Wāhine Inquiry was initiated by the Waitangi Tribunal in 2018 – nearly 25 years after the first statement of claim was filed by the past presidents of Te Rōpū Wāhine Māori Toko i te Ora, the Māori Women’s Welfare League. The Mana Wāhine foundational hearings have been completed and we’re now awaiting a number of research reports and the resumption of hearings.

The evidence follows four themes: Atua Whaea, Relationality and Balance, Wāhine Mana and Rangatiratanga, and Domains of Wāhine Authority.

Māori have waited decades for the opportunity to speak to the colonising experience of wāhine, and to correct the patriarchal assumptions that have undermined mana wāhine for nearly two centuries. The inquiry is in its early stages, just as the Waitangi Tribunal faces its most voracious political threats. So, what are we going to do about it?