A Separate Authority (He Mana Motuhake), Volume I: Establishing the Tūhoe Māori Sanctuary in New Zealand, 1894–1915

"Tūhoe mana motuhake vs the force of New Zealand colonialism. This is a patient and perceptive work unraveling stratagems of contrasting ambition so we may comprehend the cultural instincts of 1890-1920 Aotearoa. Dr. Webster proves his deep understanding of kinship dynamics, hapū politics and the Tūhoe passion for autonomy.”
—Tāmati Kruger, Representative in the Tūhoe Te Uru Taumatua, New Zealand

The resistance of the Tūhoe Māori of New Zealand to colonisation began more than century before the final return of their sanctuary in the Urewera mountains by the Crown in 2014. In Volume I of A Separate Authority (He Mana Motuhake), Steven Webster provides an ethnohistorical reconstruction of the establishment in New Zealand of a rare case of Maori home-rule over their traditional domain, backed by a special statute and investigated by a Crown commission, the majority of whom were Tūhoe leaders. This relatively benevolent colonial policy enabled the Tūhoe to control the establishment of their vast Native Reserve in a way that entrenched their social organisation, particularly their traditional deployment of kin-based power, while at once manipulating the power of the Crown to their joint advantage from 1894 to 1908. In Volume II, Webster documents how this same form of resistance enabled the Tūhoe to withstand predatory Crown policies between 1908 and 1926, thereby retaining remnants of their ancestral sanctuary—which later became the basis upon which they won statutory control of the territory.