American Indian Culture and Research Journal

No te tau 1863 i hanga ai te Ture Whakanohonohoo Niu Tireni;aa, naa raro i taua Ture me ona whakatikatikanga i raupatutia ai nga whenua o Waikato. KO nga eka i raupatuia ai i te tuatahi 1,202,172 eka. 0 rot0 ienei eka e 314,364 nga eka i whakahokia mai an0 ki nga Maaori, ka mahue atu ai nga eka ki te raupatu e 887,808. Engari no te tau 1922 ka whakahokia mai kia uiuia e te Kooti Whenua Maaori nga eka 13,947 mo nga iwi kore whenua o Waikato. INTRODUCTION In this paper, I will focus on the Tainui people's historic and contemporary efforts to seek redress for the confiscation of their lands in the mid 1860s. The Tainui are my people, and over the past two-and-one-half decades, I have been intimately involved with their case. Thus this discussion is both a personal account of my role as a fifth-generation advocate and a case study in race relations which, as we have come to learn, are primarily concerned with the politics of economics, justified by biological racism. As Richard Mulgan has observed in his recent study, "Maaori, Paakeha and Democracy," Race relations, for so long on the periphery of national consciousness, at least for the Paakeha majority, are suddenly centre stage, the subject of increasing argument and anger. The issue threatens to polarize the country as the Maaori seek to recover their lost power and land, and as the Paakeha become increasingly intolerant of what they see as unrealistic and impertinent demands. Voices of reason and moderation become harder to hear amid the rising clamour of intolerance and prejudice.