whakapapa connection and have no choice but to participate in practices that are discriminatory against Māori. resulting racism against Māori causes and allows violence against tāngata whaikaha Māori to prevail. Institutional racism creates imbalances in the distribution of resources, differential access to material resources and services, social legitimation, and other structural inequities that disadvantage Māori, while advantaging others.77 The disadvantaging of Māori in institutional structures constitutes one of the biggest challenges to upholding Te Tiriti. Māori do not have any significant autonomy in the system, and therefore, Government does not uphold tino rangatiratanga as guaranteed by Article 2 of Te Tiriti. The intersection of multiple inequities tāngata whaikaha Māori experience (including colonisation, disability, racism, and poverty) can increase the risks of violence and abuse. Although the inequities tāngata whaikaha Māori face are diverse, all sit within the broader context of colonisation. Tāngata whaikaha Māori have lived experiences and challenges that nonIndigenous persons do not, compounded by the intersecting effects of colonisation and systemic racism. Hickey and Wilson highlight that: The disadvantages experienced by tāngata whaikaha Māori as Māori disabled persons is compounded by the structural and institutional disadvantage they face as tangata whenua. To prevent violence and abuse against tāngata whaikaha Māori and Māori generally, government and duty-bearers must recognise the compounding disadvantage, and address broader issues of colonisation, racism, intergenerational trauma and cultural disconnection in all state institutions. The intersecting nature of indigeneity and disability The concept of intersectionality helps to explain the compounding nature of how multiple identities and inequities impact people’s lived experience.78 Identities associated with gender, race, socio-economic status, class, disability and the effects of oppression and colonisation intersect as multiple forms of oppression. In the context of violence against tāngata whaikaha Māori, the concept of intersectionality aids understanding of how intersecting sources of discrimination, power and privilege increase the risk and severity of violence and abuse tāngata whaikaha Māori experience. In Aotearoa New Zealand colonisation and the structural inequities it created led to the oppression of tāngata whaikaha Māori and Māori generally. Colonisation placed Pākehā in a position of power, superiority, and dominance over Māori. The privileging of Pākehā and “Indigenous people have additional and diverse historical and contemporary impacts of disablement arising from colonisation, societal discourses about racism, subjugation and dysfunction that are in themselves disabling”.79 The intersection of indigeneity and disability leads to even further significant inequities for tāngata whaikaha Māori.80 King discussed that: These [inequities] are an expression of the impacts that further occur for Māori with lived experience of disability secondary to colonisation, coloniality, racism and further discrimination and marginalisation from the intersection of indigeneity with disability.81 The wider inequalities tāngata whaikaha experience in terms of income, education, and housing, have their roots in colonisation and have an impact in terms of violence. Risk factors of violence include lower median annual income, and protective factors include education.82 Both are areas where tāngata whaikaha are particularly disadvantaged.83 Despite these multiple layers of disadvantage and heightened risks, there are major gaps in data and lack of specific provision for tāngata whaikaha Māori in policies and services. Māori with lived experience of disability are made ‘invisible’ by Crown organisations. Where Crown organisations do show responsiveness to Māori, generally this does Whakamanahia Te Tiriti, Whakahaumarutia te Tangata - Honour the Treaty, Protect the person 15