Empowering Tikanga in Post-Sentence Restorative Justice

This presentation by Lance Ryan of Ngāti Maniapoto, a lecturer at Auckland University of Technology, explores how Māori-led restorative justice organisations honour tikanga while meeting Crown administrative demands under Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Ryan describes a "cultural double shift," in which frontline staff practise relational, community-based healing even as their organisations face pressure to conform to government funding structures. The study draws on interviews, document analysis, wānanga and autoethnography, overseen by a dedicated Māori research governance group, to examine how Crown systems shape an organisation's capacity to maintain cultural integrity.