Te Tiriti, Equality and the Future of New Zealand Democracy Professor Dominic O'Sullivan

Following the launch of this book on Thursday 2nd, Dominic provides Fabians and friends the opportunity to discuss in detail the books key insights. At a time of deep polarisation, Te Tiriti, Equality and the Future of New Zealand Democracy challenges both the partnership and assimilationist interpretations of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Neither respects rangatiratanga nor offers a fully democratic and inclusive account of how government might uphold the fundamental equality that Te Tiriti imagined. Dominic draws on the republican ideals of liberty and non‑domination to interpret Te Tiriti’s third article and its promise of citizenship as equal tikanga. I suggest that the Crown’s right to establish government is not the same as the right to be government. Government is the people’s job – all, and not just some, people. Rather than positioning Māori people as partners of a distant Crown I examine what it means to think of government as the shared repository of public authority, not simply an expression of Pākehā power. Biography. Dominic O’Sullivan, from Te Rarawa and Ngāti Kahu, is Professor of Political Science at Charles Sturt University and adjunct professor at AUT and Victoria University of Wellington. Te Tiriti, Equality and the Future of New Zealand Democracy (Auckland University Press) is his tenth book and is being launched at a public event at Studio One: Toi Tū on Ponsonby Road at 5.30pm on Thursday 2nd July.