This historical overview report examines the impacts of Crown policy, practice, and legislation on the ability of wāhine Māori to exercise their rangatiratanga during the period 1840-1950. This report addresses the following research questions.
The Commission Questions | Ngā Pātai:
(a) In what ways and to what effect did the Crown seek to recognise, protect, and acknowledge the status and rights of wāhine Māori through Te Tiriti o Waitangi/The Treaty of Waitangi, including as signatories? What understandings and expectations did wāhine Māori have regarding Te
Tiriti/The Treaty, especially in regard to partnership, protection, and rangatiratanga? How and to what effect did the Crown formally recognise the roles, status, and knowledge of wāhine Māori in 1840, following the signing of Te Tiriti/The Treaty?
(b) What was the nature and effect of any Crown or Government efforts, policy, or legislation to recognise the lives, roles, status, inherent mana, and rangatiratanga of wāhine Māori throughout the nineteenth century, including
in relation to the New Zealand Wars and the Crown’s confiscation of Māori land? To what extent and how did the Native land tenure system and associated legislation around land ownership formally recognise the inherent
land and resource rights, mana, and rangatiratanga of wāhine Māori?
(c) To what extent and in what ways did Crown policies and legislation recognise and acknowledge the status of wāhine Māori in political participation? What was the nature of the recognition given to wāhine Māori compared with other social groups, in particular Māori men and non-Māori women and men? What role did wāhine Māori take in attempting to gain recognition of political rights, including the women’s suffrage movement and Māori committees of the 1890s?
(d) To what extent and in what ways did Crown legislation and policies on health and education, including but not limited to the Native Schools education system and legislation such as the Manual and Technical Instruction Act 1900 and Tohunga Suppression Act 1907, safeguard wāhine Māori exercising their knowledge, status, rights, and participation in these areas, including in association with mātauranga Māori and te reo Māori?
(e) What was the nature of wāhine Māori initiatives to improve Māori health, wellbeing, social, and political needs, including but not limited to the Māori Women’s Welfare League? What influence did these initiatives have on Crown policies, practices, and legislation? And to what extent, if any, did Crown policies, practices, and legislation, including but not limited to the Māori Social and Economic Advancement Act 1945, recognise and acknowledge the ability of wāhine Māori to exercise their rangatiratanga to improve Māori
lives through such initiatives? In the first half of the twentieth century up to 1950, to what extent, if any, did the
Crown’s urbanisation and assimilation policies recognise the roles of wāhine Māori in their whānau, hapū, and iwi, including in association with mātauranga Māori, te reo Māori, and the establishment of Māori communities in urban areas?

(From the report). Record #9019