During Nanaia Mahuta's tenure as New Zealand's Foreign Minister (2020–2023), Aotearoa New Zealand experimented with a foreign policy guided by four tikanga (Māori customary practices), namely, manaakitanga (hospitality), whanaungatanga (connectedness), mahi tahi and kotahitanga (unity through collaboration), and kaitiakitanga (intergenerational guardianship). However, despite a clear rhetorical increase in the use of Māori perspectives, in practice, New Zealand's foreign policymaking remained ontologically and epistemologically Western-centric. This paper argues that if New Zealand undertakes further experimentation with a Māori foreign policy in the future, then embracing the Māori concept of utu—broadly defined as the notion of balance through reciprocation—would provide a useful ontological and epistemological base. Using the case of the Whanganui River as a domestic example, an utu foreign policy is sketched out with an emphasis on harmony, mana, and reciprocity. Utu as a foreign policy doctrine would represent a radical departure from the status quo as it is both relational and non-anthropocentric—as opposed to Western-centric models that are anthropocentric and “scientific”—and would allow New Zealand to maintain its preference for independence as well as bringing the issue of climate change to the fore of its foreign policy.
Policy implications
- New Zealand's experimentation with a Māori foreign policy was unfulfilled but, nevertheless, showed glimpses of how a deeper embrace of te ao Māori could work in the future.
- Embracing a Māori foreign policy underpinned by the principle of utu—the process of maintaining physical and spiritual balance—would give New Zealand a non-Western and non-anthropocentric lens through which to address existential issues like climate change in the Pacific.
- An utu foreign policy doctrine would emphasize three main tenets in New Zealand's external actions: (1) Harmony: This would entail not only a focus on human-to-human relations but also the relationship between humans and the natural world and between humans of this generation and humans of past and future generations. (2) Mana: This would entail recognizing the power and authority of a wide array of actors based on their perceived mana. It would not privilege states as the only legitimate actors in international relations. (3) Reciprocity: This would entail emphasizing reciprocity and, in particular, an obligation of hospitality, as the fundamental mode for international relations. Hospitality would be extended to all actors, even actors with which there is discord or conflict.
- An utu foreign policy doctrine would be a radical departure for New Zealand's hitherto foreign policy approach, but it would help New Zealand achieve its desired geopolitical independence as well as potentially inspire other countries to experiment with indigenous approaches to foreign policy.
Photo by Mushtaq Hussain