Asa Kowals-Rose | Blog for RFILP

I’ve been reading about the history of Maori political representation in New Zealand. Since the implementation of the Maori Representation Act of 1867, there have been four special Maori seats in the New Zealand Parliament. Each of the seats represents a geographically distinct district; these districts are superimposed over regular parliamentary districts, and citizens of Maori descent can register to vote for either their Maori district or their regular one. Although this system guarantees some indigenous representation in parliament, most believe that it presents an extremely flawed approach to ensuring indigenous self-determination. Indeed, the seats were created to give only token representation to the Maori; the number of seats is fixed at four out of a total of ninety-nine, even though Maori comprise nearly fifteen percent of New Zealand’s population. Many believe that a separate Maori parliament should be created to better account for social and cultural structures that are ignored by the general parliament. This is only a brief discussion of the issue; there will be a much more in-depth explanation included in my paper, which I’ll begin writing in the next few days.