Mikaere’s book has had indirect influence on legal and policy developments through academic, judicial, and iwi-led channels. Her critique of Crown Law and advocacy for tikanga as a legal framework has contributed to acceptance of tikanga Maori in New Zealand’s legal system. Her writings have influenced iwi negotiators and Waitangi Tribunal members and are used in law schools, public sector education, and public service cultural competency programs.
The book comprises a dozen chapter essays written from 1998 to 2010 and it has been reprinted six times, the last time in 2024. The first four chapters were written when she was a lecturer on what she calls ‘the imposter legal system’ at the University of Waikato, and seven papers when she was teaching at Te Wananga o Ruakawa, a Maori tertiary education institution which aims to ‘empower’ Maoris to participate in modern society while having ancestral knowledge as a source.
Rhetoric, Reality and Recrimination
Mikaere lays out her position in the first chapter, “Rhetoric, Reality and Recrimination: Striving to Fulfil the Bicultural Commitment at Waikato Law School,” which had been first published in 1998. She says the paper focusses on “the difficulties encountered by Maori academic staff in the classroom as we strive to fulfil the promise of biculturalism in our teaching.” (p. 7)
Biculturalism distinguishes Maoris and Europeans and is said to follow from the Treaty of Waitangi, an agreement between Queen Victoria and Maori chiefs. However, New Zealand is now in fact a multicultural society which also includes Islanders, Asians and Middle Eastern people. So, the bicultural commitment at Waikato Law School makes an unjust distinction in the treatment of these further races by omitting them from consideration.
Perhaps in part because of that, the present coalition Government has been reducing Maori-specific legislation. However, New Zealand still operates within a bicultural system and the term ‘bicultural’ should be removed from New Zealand legislation and law as it creates division and promotes race-based policies.
Nevertheless, at Waikato, Mikaere taught Maori specific legal philosophy under the head ‘Jurisprudence’: She says, “Jurisprudence is a second-year compulsory paper that aims to teach students about the philosophy of law.” (p. 23) “The Maori jurisprudence segment is now an integral, examinable part of the course.” (p. 24) That is, the law students were compelled to learn tikanga, at Waikato.
The New Zealand Council of Legal Education (NZCLE) made tikanga a compulsory subject of all core subjects required for legal degrees across all law schools, to start in 2025. After a complaint by Gary Judd KC in 2024, that was overturned by Parliament in May 2025 such that it could still be included as a standalone core subject, but that it is no longer compulsory to include it in all other core papers. Consequently, many universities still include Maori Customary Law as an elective or integrated topic. (here)
Mikaere worries, “What will they do with the information I give them? Will they treat it with respect, or will they simply exploit it or distort it in order to confirm their own view of the world? Each year I try to impress upon the students at the beginning of my segment that I do not share this material lightly. I attempt to explain my concerns, and I stress that my intention is not to give them the impression that they are gaining expertise in Maori law, but rather to reveal to them how little they know. I suggest to them that Maori law is not simply an empty space in their current database that I can fill in for them during a few weeks of lectures, but rather that it is a body of wisdom that has the potential to turn their worldview on its head.” (p. 25)
“In 1996, as always, I began my segment of the course with a lecture and then a class discussion about Maori views of knowledge. This is not only a vital starting point for any discussion about Maori jurisprudence; it is also part of any attempt to impress upon the Pakeha students that the information that is being imparted to them should be treated with respect. In class, I tried to explain that to Maori, knowledge is a taonga, something of value which must be respected and cared for. I told them that particular types of knowledge were not considered freely accessible due to their spiritual power. Instead, they were entrusted to those who had been carefully selected as worthy recipients, individuals who would assume the responsibility of looking after such knowledge on behalf of the group. It could neither be commodified nor freely passed around.
“At this point, one of the Pakeha students raised his hand and asked whether this view of knowledge explained why Maori people were not very well-educated – was this, he ventured, because their cultural beliefs dictated that they hold back from the pursuit of knowledge?
“There was a moment of shocked silence. In an instant, the tension levels in the classroom were raised from non-existent to almost fever pitch. A number of the Pakeha students looked excruciatingly embarrassed. Others clearly considered it a fair question. My overwhelming concern, however, was for the Maori students. Their looks of disbelief changed almost instantly to expressions of barely-contained hurt and rage. And in the midst of trying to gauge the effects of this question and its assumptions on everyone else in the room. I was struck with the irony of my own position, the lecturer who had effectively just been told by my student that my cultural views of knowledge had retarded me educationally.” (p. 26)
Nevertheless, there is a possibility that the Maori view of knowledge has retarded them educationally and the part-Maori lecturer (her mother is Australian) and the Maori students were being preciously passive-aggressive in an attempt to quell the enquiry while avoiding reprisals.
Furthermore, why is it that “particular types of knowledge were not considered freely accessible due to their spiritual power”? What does ‘spiritual power’ refer to?
The European approach to acquiring knowledge, which has been much more successful than the Maori approach, has been to make knowledge available – to publish it – so that it may inform the recipient and so that it may be critiqued and thereby improved. Europeans acknowledge that they do not have absolute truth and that absolute truth may not even be attainable, so they seek an ever-closer approximation to truth. That has led to the criterion of falsification, according to which every idea must be able to be disproved.
I suspect Mikaere would consider that to be not respectful if it were applied to Maori knowledge. That would then go some way to explaining why European knowledge is superior to Maori knowledge which cannot be improved if it cannot be questioned because it is hidden.
So, why is it hidden because of its ‘spiritual power’? European thinkers from Plato, to Paul, to Augustine, to Aquinas, to Newton have all been involved with spiritual matters: Paul, for example, was the founder of Christianity yet was trained by Platonists in a Greek university at his home town of Tarsus; Plato used a metaphor of ‘the god’ (ho theos) in a ‘likely story’ to present his understanding of creation and the human soul; Aquinas claimed that what Aristotle called the ‘uncaused cause’, was what people of his age called ‘God’, and so on.
The best thinkers in the European history of science have used ‘spiritual’ terminology to spell out specifically as best they can what they understand of creation and our place in it, and did so with categorically greater explanatory power than the Maoris. The possibility that Maori thinkers have come up with something better still, which for some reason they have chosen to keep to themselves, does not seem plausible and the allusion to ‘spiritual power’ is apparently an attempt to block critical enquiry.
‘Spiritual Power’ and Maori Mythology
Mikaere wrote the first chapter while she was a lecturer at Waikato University. Some years later, after she had moved to Te Wananga o Ruakawa, Mikaere wrote the final two chapters which comprise Section 5, “Tikanga at the Centre”: Chapter 11 “Whakapapa and Taonga: Connecting the Memory” which was presented at Te Wananga o Raukawa in November 2006; and Chapter 12 “Some Implications of a Maori Worldview,” which was written for the 2011 book. Those chapters give Mikaere’s understanding of ‘Spiritual Power’ and Maori mythology which is considered here.
Mikaere says, “As peoples have done the world over, our tupuna expounded their own unique theory of existence in order to explain the mysteries of the universe, and to understand their place within it.” (p. 307)
Mikaere contrasts the expansive Maori knowledge system of a whakapapa worldview, which deals with concepts and context, with the ‘linear’ knowledge of colonist thinking, which is evidence-based reasoning: “Rather than limiting ourselves to the rigidity of linear thinking, we scan the intellectual horizon for alternative paths of thought.” (p. 296-7)
She thinks whakapapa is a uniquely Maori taonga: “There is no doubt that the worldview bequeathed to us by our ancestors lies at the very heart of what makes us unique.” (p. 307) At face it seems unlikely that Maoris would be unique and that claim needs a convincing argument, but which is not supplied.
I take Mikaere to be saying that the Maoris had not developed the rational faculty for discursive reasoning as the Socratic Greeks had done and that Maoris instead rely solely on intuition.
Mikaere spells out her epistemology in Chapter 12: “This chapter seeks to explore some of the messages for living contained within a Maori worldview. In so doing, it relies principally upon Maori cosmogony…” (p. 308, cosmogony = the origin of the universe, esp. the solar system)
“A common idea within the cosmogonic accounts is a starting point of Te Kore. Loosely translated as ‘the nothing’ or ‘the void’, it is apparent that Te Kore is in fact a state of infinite potential, a realm that contains within itself the seeds of all creation:
‘Te Korekore is the realm between non-being and being: that is, the realm of potential being. This is the realm of primal, elemental energy or latent being. It is here that the seed-stuff of the universe and all created things gestate. It is the womb from which all things proceed. Thus, the Maori is thinking of continuous creation employed in two allegorical figures: that of plant growth and that of gestation in the womb.’ [Note 11. Marsden, M. ‘God, Man and Universe: A Maori View’ in Royal, T.A. (ed), The Woven Universe, 2003, p. 20.]
“There are a number of whakapapa that describe the emergence of Te Po from Te Kore, some employing the metaphor of plant growth, some applying the imagery of birth, and others referring to the development of conscious thought. Within the many phases of Te Po are created the male and female beings that eventually produce the natural world: Ranginui, the sky, Papatuanuku, the earth and others. While many versions cite the single and enduring partnership of Ranginui and Papatuanuku as having parented all of creation, others suggest a more complex picture, stating for example that Papatuanuku produced children with Tangaroa before doing so with Ranginui, or that both Ranginui and Papatuanuku had other partners. Regardless of who partnered with whom and in what order, however, the universal truth that emerges from this part of the story is that we, along with everything else in the world around us, are the products of unions between beings created during Te Po.” (p. 310-11)
She does not say what Te Po means, but Hirini Mead translates te po as ‘the darkness’ and the Williams Dictionary (7th edition) translates po as ‘place of departed spirits’.
Mikaere concludes, “Perhaps the most important message to emerge from our creation stories is that we are connected… Everything in the natural world, ourselves included, shares a common ancestry.” (p. 313) She refers to this package as ‘whakapapa’.
We can now understand why Mikaere was hesitant to share the source of Maori knowledge; it is because it is based on mythology similar to that of the pre-Socratic Greeks. The academics cannot argue for it publicly because they will be disparaged in scientific circles here and internationally; Richard Dawkins and the ‘Listener Seven’ as examples. Presumably, her move from a university to a whare wananga meant that she could espouse her cause.
I posted “Matauranga Maori is a Myth,” 13 August 2025 (here) regarding a 2025 book, Matauranga Maori, by Professor Sir Sidney (Hirini) Moko Mead, a foundation professor of Maori studies at Victoria University. There, I show that the above myth identified by Mikaere is similar to Greek mythology in the following ways (the page numbers are from Mead’s book):
Ranginui and Papatuanuku (here) have significant similarities with the Greek gods Uranus (also god of the Sky) and Gaia (Earth mother): Both couples emerged out of the void (Chaos / Te Kore, p. 92) and signify the union of Sky Father and Earth Mother. They are separated by their sons Cronus and Tane (p. 93); the act of separating sky and earth determines the beginning of light, space, and life (p. 124); and the ensuing Greek genealogy and Maori whakapapa demonstrate generation, interconnectedness and knowledge.
So, Mikaere’s claim that “our tupuna expounded their own unique theory of existence” is not true and so the further claim that “There is no doubt that the worldview bequeathed to us by our ancestors lies at the very heart of what makes us unique” is also mistaken.
A possible reason for the similarity with Greek mythology is that much of what is today considered to be Maori mythology is derived from early recordings made by Europeans which have been revised and retold by contemporary Maori writers. For example: Treasury of Maori Folklore by A.W. Reed in 1963 was revised by Ross Calman and republished as the Reed Book of Maori Mythology in 2004, and again with further revisions by Calman in 2021; and Myths and Legends of Maoriland by A.W. Reed in 1946 was revised by Buddy Mikaere as Purakau: Legendary Maori Tales in 2025. There is also Purakau: Maori Myths Retold by Maori Writers, edited by Witi Ihimaera and Whiti Hereaka and published in 2019. You can get further detail from my previous Article
Irrespective of where it came from, the point is that Maori knowledge is mythical.
Education in Schools
The above is relevant to the present debate regarding education in schools, which were made secular by the Education Act 1877.
Chapter 9 of Ani Mikaere’s book, “Cultural Invasion Continued: The Ongoing Colonisation of Tikanga Maori”, was first presented at the Eleventh PPTA Maori Teachers’ Conference, 11 July 2005 and published in Te Purenga (2005) 8.2 Yearbook of New Zealand Jurisprudence.
Here is a sample of what Mikaere told those Maori teachers:
“Female strength lies at the core of Maori existence, and is sourced in the power of female sexual and reproductive functions. This emerges clearly in the cosmogonic accounts, the potency of female sexuality being implicit in the womb symbolism of Te Kore and Te Po and in the birth of Papatuanuku and Ranganui’s children into the world of light, Te Ao Marama. The creation of humankind upon the advice of Papatuanuku further reflects this theme, with Tanemahuta being sent by his mother to Kurawaka, her pubic region, to gather the red earth containing the necessary uha or female element from which Hinehuone, the first woman, can be shaped. Tanemahuta and Hineahuone create Hinetitama who, along with Tane produces many children. When she discovers that the father of her children is also her own father, she recites a karakia to render him strengthless to pursue her and she leaves him. She commands him to remain behind and care for their children in their earthly life while she descends to one of the underworlds, Rarohenga, to prepare a place for them to care for them in death. There she remains, known as Hinenuitepo, guardian of the spirits of all her human descendants.” (p. 209)
Mikaere gives no indication that she does not mean what she literally says. She appears to hold a belief that the cosmos was brought about and is sustained by a gendered pair of anthropomorphic gods and she shares that belief with an audience of Maori teachers who have presumably since passed it on in part to their pupils.
The bicultural concepts of Mikaere’s Chapter 9 – tikanga as foundational law, gendered roles in Maori cosmology, and collective responsibility – are increasingly represented through curriculum principles, legal education reforms, and localized teaching practices.
Consequently, we are now presented with the following situation for schools:
On the one hand, there is New Zealand’s current curriculum which has as a basis the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, promoting biculturalism and Maori mythology, and emphasizes broad competencies, student agency, and local flexibility.
On the other hand, there is a proposal from Education Minister Erica Stanford for a ‘knowledge rich’ approach grounded in the science of learning, with prescribed knowledge of facts, concepts, principles, and theories which students learn, memorize and then recite and be tested on.
Erica Stanford has removed the requirement for school boards to give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, nevertheless to the extent it is there now I expect it will remain. She further says, “This change is about ambition. It’s about raising achievement. And it’s about better outcomes for our young people. Every student deserves the chance to succeed. We’re making sure that every student, regardless of background, has that chance.”
However, there may be a difference of philosophy with the ministry. Pauline Cleaver, the Ministry of Education’s deputy secretary in charge of its curriculum centre, said, “Whether we have a competency-based framework or we have a knowledge rich curriculum, we want high expectations for all our young people, and we want equity of outcomes for all our young people.”
The equality of opportunity implied by Stanford is not the same as the equity of outcome stated by Cleaver, which indicates future deviation from the implementation intended by our Parliament. Stanford’s proposal is about fostering desire and determination to achieve success (‘ambition’) by the student, which in my view is a necessary component for the future success of New Zealand.
I doubt that the changes made by the present Parliament will make much difference.
Summary and Conclusion
Ani Mikaere’s writings, in particular those in He Rukuruku Whakaaro, are drawn from a knowledge system which she calls ‘whakapapa’, a primordial principle of creation which generates gods Ranginui and Papatuanuku, and from them, the rest of creation. Her cosmological pronouncements have influenced legal and policy developments, contributed to acceptance of tikanga in our legal and education systems, influenced iwi negotiators and Waitangi Tribunal members, and are used in law schools, public sector education and cultural competency programs.
The above discussion on Maori mythology serves to demonstrate just how unreal and irrational the constructed argument from Maoridom has become. The problem is that it is influencing the direction and constitution of the country and our Government is facilitating that. Instead, it ought to be removed root and branch.
Barrie Davis is a retired telecommunications engineer, holds a PhD in the psychology of Christian beliefs, and can often be found gnashing his teeth reading The Post outside Floyd’s cafe at Island Bay.
Sources
Hirini Mead, Matauranga Maori, 2025
Barrie Davis: Matauranga Maori is a Myth, 13 August 2025
https://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2025/08/barrie-davis-matauranga-maori-is-myth.html
“The case for tikanga Māori: The LLB degree curriculum in a contemporary context,” New Zealand Law Society, 13 June 2024
https://www.lawsociety.org.nz/news/publications/lawtalk/lawtalk-issue-958/the-case-for-tikanga-maori/
Ani Mikaere, He Rukuruku Whakaaro, 2011.
Previous publications of He Rukuruku Whakaaro chapter essays:
Chapter 1 “Rhetoric, Reality and Recrimination: Striving to Fulfil the Bicultural Commitment at Waikato Law School”. This paper was first published in He Pukenga Korero Ngahuru (Autumn), Vol 3, No 2, 1998, p. 4.
Chapter 2 “He Whaipaanga Hou Ten Years On: The Impact of He Whaipaanga Hou on Legal Education”. This paper was presented at the Maori and Criminal Justice: He Whaipaanga Hou Ten Years On Conference, Wellington, 15-17 July 1998; and published in the Conference Proceedings, p. 51. See Note 1.
Chapter 3 “On Being Maori and Being a Lawyer: The Musings of a Maori Legal Academic”. This paper was first published in Mikaere, A & Milroy, S. (eds) Ki te Ao Marama (Te Hunga Roia Maori o Aotearoa Tenth Anniversary Hui-a-Tau Conference Proceedings). Centre for New Zealand Jurisprudence, Hamilton, 1998.
Chapter 4 “Racism in Contemporary Aotearoa: A Pakeha Problem”. This paper was presented at the Regional Meeting of Indigenous Peoples on the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, Sydney, 20-22 February 2001; and published in Nakata, M. Indigenous Peoples, Racism and the United Nations. Common Ground Publishing, Australia, 2001.
Chapter 5 “Are We All New Zealanders Now? A Maori Response to the Pakeha Quest for Indigeneity”. This paper was first delivered as the Bruce Jesson Lecture, University of Auckland, 15 November 2004. Note 2.
Chapter 6 “Te Tiriti and the Treaty: Seeking to Reconcile the Irreconcilable in the Name of Truth”. This chapter was written for the book.
Chapter 7 “Three (Million) Strikes and Still Not Out: The Crown as the Consummate Recidivist”. This paper was presented at the Maori Criminal Justice Colloquium, ‘Te Ao Tara Aitu ki te Ara Matua: From the World of Calamity to the Path of Clarity’, Napier, 26-28 November, 2008.
Chapter 8 “Collective Rights and Gender Issues: A Maori Woman’s Perspective”. This paper was presented at the Collective Human Rights of Pacific Peoples Conference, University of Auckland, 28 August 1998; and published in Tomas, N (ed) Collective Human Rights of Pacific Peoples. International Research Unit for Maori and Indigenous Education, Auckland, 1998.
Chapter 9 “Cultural Invasion Continued: The Ongoing Colonisation of Tikanga Maori”. This paper was presented at the Eleventh PPTA Maori Teachers’ Conference, 11 July 2005; and published in Te Purenga (2005) 8.2 Yearbook of New Zealand Jurisprudence.
Chapter 10 “How Will Future Generations Judge Us? Some Thoughts on the Relationship between Crown Law and Tikanga Maori”. This paper was presented at the Ma te Rango te Waka Ka Rere: Exploring a Kaupapa Maori Organisational Framework Conference, Te Wananga o Raukawa, Otaki, 3-4 November 2006. Note 3.
Chapter 11 “Whakapapa and Taonga: Connecting the Memory”. This paper was presented at the Puna Maumahara: Ropu Tuku Iho Repositories Conference, Te Wananga o Raukawa, Otaki, 16-17 November 2006.
Chapter 12 “Some Implications of a Maori Worldview”. This chapter was written for the book.
Notes
The following three chapters have had particular application in policy and legal areas (information provided by Copilot):
1. Chapter 2: This paper on legal education was presented at the Maori and Criminal Justice Conference. It critiques systemic bias in criminal law and has informed Maori justice advocacy, including calls for kaupapa Māori courts and restorative justice models.
2. Chapter 5: This paper was first delivered as the Bruce Jesson Lecture and has since been widely circulated. It challenges liberal democratic assumptions and has influenced constitutional reform debates.
3. Chapter 10. This paper is about a Kaupapa Māori Organisational Framework. It is used in Māori organisational development and referenced in iwi governance training.
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