Abstract

This paper explores the implications of prevailing political thought for the extent to which Mäori are able to pursue self-determination, which, although theoretically legitimate, is constrained by elite political pragmatism. While the long fashionable bicultural paradigm offers some opportunity for self-determination, its utility for the meeting of Mäori aspiration was further limited by the change in political climate following the National Party Leader Don Brash’s Nationhood speech in 2004 and by the Foreshore and Seabed Act of 2004. These events encouraged and legitimised a renewed public suspicion of Mäori aspiration so that the political space available for the pursuit of self-determination was reduced.