Te Hāhi Mihinare | The Māori Anglican Church The story of Māori accountability to Māori, thus self-determination, within the international institution of the Anglican Church has been one of gradual evolution, not without struggle. Hirini Kaa65 refers to the establishment of the Anglican Church in the early days of colonisation of Aotearoa New Zealand as “the Anglican Empire”, which had parallels in similarly colonised countries such as India, and in Africa. Te Hāhi Mihinare was gradually enabled to assert tikanga and mātauranga, initially encouraged by Anglican leader Reverend Henry Venn, who championed devolution of authority. Venn was the Secretary of the Church Missionary Society of London, the body that sent the CMS Missionaries from 1823 to around 1880. Overlapping this time, Bishop George Selwyn was sent by the Church of England’s Bishop of London. He was responsible for appointing bishops for the colonies. This and subsequent debates on tikanga on selfdetermination were influenced by “pan-tribal dynamics and Native Church actions overseas,”66 stimulated by the keen desire of Māori clergy to control and manage their own church matters. The concept was an iwi-driven institution – a Māori church different in form and ritual but retaining all the fundamentals of the Anglican Church. Bishop Selwyn ordained Rota Waitoa as a deacon in 1853 and Riwai Te Ahu in 1860. Bishop William Williams, as Bishop of the new Diocese of Waiapu, later ordained his own people and Selwyn’s original deacons as priests. Large numbers of Māori were also trained as teachers and evangelists. Ranginui Walker gave the example of “the Māori Bishop [as a] working model [of the] success of Māori parallel institutions with autonomy within the general framework of New Zealand society”.67 The Anglican Church of Aotearoa New Zealand currently is organised in three ‘tikanga’: Māori, Polynesian and Pākehā. Te Hāhi Mihinare story of Māori accountability is of continued renegotiation and of mātauranga through Christianity. The gender role has yet to achieve equity in Te Hāhi Mihinare. While land wars disrupted the sharing of power with Māori clergy, Māori members of the Church continued with reshaping their faith and asserting the importance of maintaining their tikanga. A key step was the consecration of the Pīhopa, Frederick Bennett, Bishop of Aotearoa, in 1928. 28 In 1978, the Aotearoa Council was inaugurated as a semi-autonomous body. Te Hāhi Mihinare was then empowered as a group with representation on the General Synod. Various commissions of the Church were instigated to examine the existing constitution of the Church. The narrative of selfdetermination was one of strong leadership (such as from Ngata and Winiata), resolved in the General Synod of 1992 when a revised constitution was agreed upon. Te Kāhui Tika Tangata New Zealand Human Rights Commission Housing Inquiry