Politics of Sovereignty: Settler Resonance and Māori Resistance in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Abstract Both settler states and Indigenous peoples have mobilised sovereignty to either entrench or challenge the structure of settler colonialism. However, this historical deployment of co-existing and competing ‘politics of sovereignty’ is deeply missed by the predominant fixed and state-centrist analysis of sovereignty. Based on archival and documentary analysis discussing two pivotal moments of Aotearoa/New Zealand history, I expose how the Crown discourses and practices of sovereignty aim at policing a Euro-modern resonance, whereas the Māori ones contain the potential for a resistance and alternative. Findings reveal how these particular politics of sovereignty function as (dis)empowering and (de-)authorising political devices respectively linked to processes of colonisation and decolonisation.