99 Human Rights Commission Chapter 8: Mana Motuhake Constitutional transformation A full and final ‘settling’ of colonisation should mean more than a cash payment and even an apology. It requires a transformative shift in thinking to properly establish the constitutional relationship that Te Tiriti intended by restoring the authority that was once exercised through mana and rangatiratanga (Independent Working Group on Constitutional Transformation, 2018, p. 29). This chapter details the constitutional steps Aotearoa needs to take in redressing the racist oppression of Māori. Overview Te Tiriti o Waitangi (Te Tiriti) did not cede sovereignty from rangatira Māori to the Crown in 1840. Te Tiriti was an agreement to “share power and authority with the Governor”, in which the Crown and Māori existed and operated within different “spheres of influence” (Waitangi Tribunal, 2014, pp. 526–7). Privileging the English version, and ignoring what rangatira agreed in te Tiriti, has led to the wholesale erosion and undermining of Māori self-determination and ways of being across the nineteenth, twentieth, and twentyfirst centuries. It remains the Crown’s most serious breach of Te Tiriti. To address this fundamental disruption to tino rangatiratanga, our interviewees were clear: constitutional transformation and co-governance, based on He Whakaputanga o Te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni | Declaration of Independence and Te Tiriti, is needed. As echoed in Matike Mai Aotearoa: Addressing the breach of the Crown’s promises and finally honouring Te Tiriti is perhaps the most important reason for seeking constitutional transformation (Independent Working Group on Constitutional Transformation, 2018, p. 101). Such transformation is the only way to genuinely redress the damage and disempowerment wrought by colonisation (Independent Working Group on Constitutional Transformation, 2018, pp. 101, 26) because the current constitutional configuration centred on parliamentary sovereignty is premised on the dispossession of Māori lands and livelihoods ( Aikman, 2019). In the end: This has long been a conversation in te ao Māori, with Matike Mai Aotearoa and, more recently, He Puapua: Report of the Working Group on a Plan to Realise the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Aotearoa/New Zealand, articulating a vision of what these constitutional arrangements might look like (see Charters, Kingdon-Bebb, Ormsby, Owen, Pryor, Ruru, Solomon & Williams, 2019; Independent Working Group on Constitutional Transformation, 2018). Principles of reconciliation For the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, a flourishing Canadian society must be grounded in reconciliation, to achieve the kind of fundamental shift envisioned in constitutional transformation. Their report details 10 principles that articulate this vision (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2015, pp. 3–4). In imagining an equitable, anti-racist future for Aotearoa, these principles, together resonate with much of what was shared by our interviewees in the desire for constitutional transformation. The principles have been modified for the Aotearoa context, as guides for shaping this future: 1. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is the framework for reconciliation at all levels and across all sectors of society in Aotearoa.