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Mitchell, for example, whose concept of‘state effects’ – whereby ‘the national stateis conceived as an abstract entity disconnectedfrom socioeconomic change’ (p. 117) – isdirectly employed in the analysis of CUFTA/NAFTA, is taken to task for couching sucheffects purely at the level of the national state;and Sparke turns to Bertell Ollman to help‘transnationalize’ Mitchell’s approach. Onceagain, the book will doubtless prove provoca-tive and informative even for those readerswho sidestep Sparke’s deconstruction of these(in his words) ‘anaemic geographies’; but, inthis reader’s opinion, the effort and attentionrequired to grasp the critique are very muchworthwhile.

Fourth, and finally – and where this readeradmits to struggling – Sparke builds on theseindividual critiques to stake a broader claimfor ‘a critically deconstructive account of geo-graphy’ (p. xv), drawing most heavily onGayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s rereadings ofDerrida (see especially pp. xxiv–xxxv). Whe-ther or not this version of geography is toeveryone’s taste, its proponent is a geographerwell worth listening to.

Brett Christophers

School of Geography and Environmental ScienceThe University of Auckland

622

Book Review

Book ReviewsBook ReviewsBook Reviews

The Waitangi Tribunal and New Zealand History

Giselle Byrnes. Oxford University Press, SouthMelbourne, 2004. 222 pp. ISBN 0-19-558434-1.

The Treaty movement is creating new territory.This territory has its boundaries marked outby claims lodged under the Treaty of WaitangiAct 1975, by Crown Forestry Rental Trustfunding decisions, by the Waitangi Tribunal’sinquiry districts and reports, and by claimsettlements negotiated between the Office ofTreaty Settlements and new M

a

ori tribal for-mations. It is not easy territory for academics,politicians, or the public and the whole Treatymovement appears to live on the edge ofuncertainty depending on public whim andpolitical point-scoring.

Giselle Byrnes in

The Waitangi Tribunaland New Zealand History

enters the Treaty

territory from the realm of public history andacademia. It is a book that examines the roleof the Waitangi Tribunal and its mission toproduce Tribunal history. This examinationexplores the tensions between law and historyin Tribunal narratives, questions of ‘truth’ andobjectivity, the depiction of European his-torical actors and agents within Tribunalreports, and the development of a M

a

oriperspective within Tribunal history. She alsolooks at Tribunal history from the perspectivesof ‘retrospective utopian history’, ‘liberationhistory’ and ‘alternative histories’.

It is a critical view of the Tribunal focusedprimarily on the reports of the Tribunal. Ifound the discussion on the retrospectiveutopian history and issues over counterfactualapproaches a useful contribution building onthe work of W.H. Oliver. Byrnes rightly pointsto the Treaty of Waitangi Act which directsthe Tribunal to investigate according to aformat based around claims, claimants andthe Crown. Unfortunately, the research pro-cess of the Tribunal gained little attention.The Tribunal’s reports are not just ‘text’. Theyneed to be understood as part of a process, ofwhich the research process is critical. Thebook has a serious gap in missing a discussionon the casebook method and the Tribunal’sresearch strategies, including the RangahauWh

a

nui project and the ‘Gisborne inquiryapproach’. These strategies have tended toensure research is now not entirely ‘claimdriven’ but relates to general historical themesof M

a

ori–P

a

keh

a

interaction and relationshipswithin areas and regions as was illustrated inthe Wairarapa ki Tararua inquiry. Ideally, thebook would have benefited from a discussionon these matters with the research unit of theTribunal.

Like many people, I consider the Tribunalas an essential process to ensure the Treaty ofWaitangi is relevant in New Zealand societytoday. Also as a former Tribunal researcher (aswas Giselle for a short period) my first reac-tion to this book was to ‘defend’ the Tribunal.Quotations in the text such as ‘the Tribunal mightbe best described as a noble, but ultimatelyflawed experiment’ (p. 199) are worrying asthey might provide ‘fodder’ for some sectorsof the public and politicians to disband theentire Tribunal process. Yet the book makes a

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valuable contribution to approaching the Tri-bunal’s work and ideas for improving the qual-ity of Tribunal reports. There is little reasongiven in the book for the Tribunal to deservethe title of being a ‘flawed experiment’. In fact,the majority of comments in the book are verypositive and that the Tribunal is ‘leading theway’ in the fields of international jurisprudenceand historiography.

The Waitangi Tribunal andNew Zealand History

requires a more finelytuned balance between critical analysis andcriticism.

Robert McClean

New Zealand Historic Places TrustPouhere Taonga

Wellington

622

Book Review

Book ReviewsBook ReviewsBook Reviews

Waitangi Revisited: Perspectives on the Treaty of Waitangi

Michael Belgrave, Merata Kawharu and DavidWilliams (eds). Oxford University Press, SouthMelbourne, 2005. 402 pp. ISBN 0-19-558400-7.

Waitangi Revisited: Perspectives on the Treatyof Waitangi

is an update on the previous col-lection entitled

Waitangi: M

A

ori and P

A

keh

A

Perspectives

, edited by Hugh Kawharu in 1989.The book, however, is not just simply anupdate: it is an entirely new publication with anew set of authors. The authors line up as the‘who’s who’ of the Treaty movement: ShaneJones, Sir Hugh Kawharu, Jane Kelsey, PaulMcHugh, Margaret Mutu, Andrew Sharp andMaui Solomon. A notable exception to thisrole call is the absence of articles by Tribunalmembers such as the current chairperson,Chief Judge Joe Williams.

The chapter topics cover a broad range ofissues associated with the Treaty: tino ranga-tiratanga, the Waitangi Tribunal, globalization,social policy, hap

u

development, customaryrights, the foreshore, constitutionalism andlegal systems. I particularly enjoyed MichaelBelgrave’s chapter on Tribunal history whichhas many points in common with

The WaitangiTribunal and New Zealand History

, but includesa valuable discussion on the Tribunal’s researchprocess. Paul McHugh’s chapter provides direc-tion on New Zealand’s evolving constitutionalarrangements and covers the field of ‘rights’ in

relation to the Resource Management Act andthe foreshore and seabed saga.

This chapter is followed by Andrew Sharpwriting on the ‘Treaty in the real life of theconstitution’ which provides three alternativeviews of New Zealand’s constitutional arrange-ments: legal, M

a

ori and whakapapa. From thelegal view, the Treaty is not part of the con-stitution. Instead it may have formed part of afoundation document ‘in the way that a court-ship is the “foundation” of a marriage’ (p. 311).The ‘marriage’, however, was a constitution basedon the William Hobson’s two proclamations ofsovereignty and eventual independence in 1947with the adoption of the Statute of Westminster.This view is challenged by both the M

a

ori andwhakapapa constitutionalism which place theTreaty at the centre and the existence ofM

a

ori law.This theme is developed by Ani Mikaere in

calling for recognition of tikanga M

a

ori andthe restoration of tikanga M

a

ori to its formerprominence. Yet the calls for such recognitionare challenged by Jock Brookfield in his chapteron the problems of recognizing tikanga M

a

ori.For example, Brookfield speculates how thecourts would recognize violent utu: ‘Would theysimply accept whatever vengeance was takenin a particular case? Or would they judgewhether it was reasonable?’(p. 354).

Coming out of this messy constitutionalterritory, I was hoping for some ‘way forward’signposts in the last chapter of the book entitled‘Unique Treaty-based relationships remainelusive’. This chapter by David Williams, how-ever, is elusive and was somewhat disappoint-ing with a lengthy discussion covering ‘old’ground (the

SOE

case, etc) and the Wai 262claim (which already is the subject of an entirechapter written by Maui Solomon).

As outlined in the introduction of the book,there is an underlying reconsideration of theTreaty – an overall questioning without theconfidence of 1989 that reflects a society onthe edge where ‘in the future the partial orcomplete reversal of the recognition of theTreaty and M

a

ori interests in law and policycannot be ruled out entirely’ (p. xxi). Withinthis era of uncertainty there appear few com-mon points of agreement within the diverseviews expressed by the authors. Such diversityis welcome and reflects the diversity of opinions