3. Tāngata whaikaha Māori rights have been breached Issues tāngata whaikaha Māori experience Tāngata whaikaha Māori have rights to equity guaranteed under Article 3 of Te Tiriti. Despite these rights, tāngata whaikaha Māori experience high levels of marginalisation, poverty, discrimination, and a loss of voice and agency. Compared with Māori generally, tāngata whaikaha Māori experience significant inequities across many socioeconomic indicators. These inequities are enforced and maintained by the continued effects of colonisation that resulted in the dispossession of Māori land, power, and resources as well as disconnection from culture, whānau, hapū and iwi. As was discussed in a statement by Kapō Māori Aotearoa: “We have become marginalized and divorced from our kin through successive government policies which over time have been characterised by the charitable, managerial, dependency, cultural and social imperatives of other cultures and their ways. The effects of such imperialist actions are substantiated in research that evidences the dislocation and separation of Maori disabled persons, as a result of being institutionalised over the years, from their whānau, hapū and Iwi”.62 The cumulative effect of being Māori and living with disability, means tāngata whaikaha Māori are represented in two of the most vulnerable and mistreated groups in society. The effects of violence are compounded by exposure to systems, processes, and services predicated and maintained through coloniality and racism, that dismiss Māori agency.63 Tāngata whaikaha Māori suffer from inequitable access to health and disability services.64 This is in part, a consequence of the Crown’s approach to health and disability structures which are predicated on colonial ideals. Since 1840, the prevalence of colonial structures and ways of thinking has prevented tāngata whaikaha Māori from participating in policy and legislative developments.65 The spaces in which they can participate are largely Pākehā centric, and conflict with Te Ao Māori approaches to health, protection, and wellbeing. Favouring Western models rather than Te Ao Māori approaches to health and wellbeing creates inequitable outcomes for Māori and constrains self-determination. As King discussed: “Māori with lived experience of disability have been impacted even further due to the intersection of Māori experience of disability with colonisation, coloniality and racism. These impacts are compounded by culturally unsafe models of health imposed upon Māori, in addition to Māori experiences of institutional racism, and explicit and implicit bias within health and disability services. As a population group, the persistent, significant, and pervasive inequities impacting on Māori with lived experience of disability, demonstrate that they have experienced, and continue to experience, the disproportionate impact of the Crown’s actions and inactions”.66 Multiple systemic and structural barriers impede the ability of tāngata whaikaha Māori to participate in decisions that affect them. The significant inequities tāngata whaikaha Māori face have been maintained through the ongoing effects of colonisation and decades of Crown-centric policy, that place Tauiwi needs before the needs of Māori. As a result, tāngata whaikaha Māori lack resources, meaningful participation capabilities, and effective monitoring mechanisms to respond to continuing inequities. Whakamanahia Te Tiriti, Whakahaumarutia te Tangata - Honour the Treaty, Protect the person 13