Māori Women And The Native Land Court: Gendered Dispossession Through Colonial Land Law, 1865–1930

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Abhinav Singh, M.A., B.A., LL.B., Panjab University, Chandigarh

Orcid ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-9089-3518

ABSTRACT

This article offers a legal-historical examination of how colonial land law in Aotearoa New Zealand redefined Māori women’s status as landholders between 1865 and 1930. Focusing on the establishment and operation of the Native Land Court, the analysis reveals that statutory and procedural mechanisms not only facilitated large-scale land alienation but also undermined the customary legal standing of Māori women. Through the individualisation of title, the exclusionary effects of coverture, and the administrative absorption of so-called “uneconomic” shares, Māori women were progressively marginalised in law and practice. Drawing on statutory sources, tribunal findings, and Indigenous legal theory, the article argues that this gendered dispossession represented more than a loss of property—it constituted a legal erasure of mana wahine, the relational authority and autonomy recognised under tikanga Māori. By reconstructing the legal framework through which Māori women were rendered peripheral to land governance, this study contributes a critical dimension to the historiography of colonisation and calls for the reconsideration of redress frameworks to reflect the gender-specific harms embedded in colonial legal design.

Keywords: Māori Women; Native Land Court; Colonial Legal Dispossession; Colonial Land Law; Mana Wahine; Tikanga Māori

MĀORI WOMEN AND THE NATIVE LAND COURT- GENDERED DISPOSSESSION THROUGH COLONIAL LAND LAW, 1.

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