ABSTRACT
The current Indigenous context for social work practice and research in Aotearoa New Zealand was not created in a vacuum. It is the product of approximately 200 years of human relationships. The colonization of New Zealand began in earnest in 1840 after the Indigenous people, the Māori, gave permission for the establishment of British government within their country in exchange for recognition and protection of their property rights, the continuation of their authority over local matters and receiving the rights of British citizenship. The document that laid out these terms is called the Treaty of Waitangi, and while many of its guarantees were subsequently ignored by the British settlers who followed, the Treaty provided a framework for Māori to seek justice and argue for greater influence in the political, social and economic life of the country (Humpage and Fleras, 2001; Walker, 1990).
