Jay T. Johnson, University of Hawaii, 2440 Campus Road Box 332, Honolulu, HI 96822. jayj@hawaii.edu.

Biculturalism, Resource Management and Maori Self-determination.

Indigenous self-determination is primarily a question of control over a peoples’ bodies, communities, resources and land. Many Indigenous peoples in North and South America as well as the Pacific today find themselves dominated by nation-states which are controlled by the descendants of settlers; removed from their traditional lands, resources and cultural patrimony. This domination of Indigenous populations and separation from their resources and lands has severed Indigenous self-determination, disrupting their autonomy over their customary lands and its resources. Biculturalism has been one answer proposed to reverse the trend of dispossession faced by Indigenous communities. In Aotearoa/New Zealand, biculturalism has become government policy, incorporated into legislation in an effort to substantiate the partnership between Maori and the Crown first proposed by the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. The far-reaching Resource Management Act of 1991 is one example of the incorporation of biculturalism within the legal framework of New Zealand. Maori, like other Indigenous peoples, have along tradition of resource management, but Maori resource management is based on an Indigenous knowledge and value system. Does the incorporation of Maori concepts within the Resource Management Act actual aid in building a bicultural society or does it merely reduce Maori law and resource management to a controllable legal quotient?

Keyword: Indigenous geography, resource management, Maori.