Māori
Definition
Māori refers to the Indigenous Peoples of Aotearoa/New Zealand, whose acculturation experiences are shaped by the historical context of colonization and by the political framework established through Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi). From a Māori perspective, a genuinely multicultural society must be grounded in that Treaty and centered on the value of Manaakitanga, understood as hospitality and care toward newcomers. A primary concern expressed by Māori is that multicultural policies risk positioning them as simply another ethnic minority, thereby undermining indigeneity and eroding the bicultural partnership the Treaty established. Research conducted with Māori using a Braided River framework, which combines Western and Indigenous perspectives with mixed methods, found that standard acculturation science definitions of multiculturalism overlap only partially with Indigenous conceptualizations of it.
Sources: Ward et al. (2025)
Related Terms
- acculturation (1 shared article)
- multiculturalism (1 shared article)
- Indigenous (1 shared article)
- Braided Rivers (1 shared article)
- decolonialization (1 shared article)
Applications
Māori and Multiculturalism
Māori perspectives on multiculturalism diverge in significant ways from the approach to multicultural ideology, contact, and policy that dominates acculturation science. Māori support for multicultural policies is conditional: such policies must not override the bicultural partnership and Indigenous priorities encoded in Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and they must foreground Manaakitanga rather than treating Māori as one ethnic minority among many.
Sources: Ward et al. (2025)
Māori and Colonization
Colonization subjected Māori, like other Indigenous Peoples in post-colonial settler societies, to land dispossession, forced assimilation, and the suppression of language and culture. The legacy of that process persists in contemporary socio-economic disadvantage and health inequities, making the historical context of colonization inseparable from any account of Māori acculturation experiences.
Sources: Ward et al. (2025)
Māori and Acculturation Science
Acculturation science has largely overlooked Indigenous Peoples despite the fact that much intercultural contact globally occurs on Native lands. Research with Māori, conducted through the Braided River paradigm combining Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers, represents a direct effort to address that gap and to begin indigenizing acculturation theory.
Sources: Ward et al. (2025)
