"Talking Past Each Other"? Translational Politics and Competing Modalities of Sovereignty in the Te Paparahi o Te Raki Enquiry

This paper aims to marry the burgeoning field of study of ‘the politics of translation’ in IR with Aotearoa/New Zealand’s ongoing sense-making of its indigenous sovereignty. Analysing how Māori claimants and the Crown advanced different understandings and modalities of ‘sovereignty’ throughout the Waitangi Tribunal’s Te Paparahi o Te Raki (WAI1040) enquiry process, this paper strives to uncover the importance of distinguishing between ‘conceptual’ and ‘translational’ politics in both the drafting and interpreting of indigenous sovereignty claims in Aotearoa. Although WAI1040 established that Māori never actually ceded sovereignty, it appears difficult – if not undesirable and/or impossible – to reconcile Māori understandings of sovereignty with ‘British’ ones. Embracing the limitations of the English language when understanding and approaching indigenous (Māori) ‘sovereignty’ claims, the paper finds that to highlight the idea of two different languages (te reo Māori and English) rather than different conceptions of sovereignty is to depoliticise and efface the normative and conceptual contestation over Māori rights, privileges, and powers in Aotearoa.