Formal justice systems have not served the human rights of native and aboriginal groups well and have led to growing natural and international pressure for equal treatment and increased political and legal autonomy. Indigenous activities in areas of community healing have created a fervor of interest as native peoples have shared experiences with programs that reduce addiction, family violence, child abuse, and sociocultural disintegration of traditional communities. Through ethnographic and indigenous contributions this volume penetrates the psychosocial aspects of the indigenous movement in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. It analyzes community-based reforms and shows how years of experience in adversity, peacemaking, and community preservation have equipped native peoples with skills they now wish to share for spiritual world healing.

Hazlehurst explores the political importance of ethnicity for a minority indigenous population, the Maori of New Zealand. Drawing on close ethnographical observation and extensive interviews with key participants, Kayleen Hazlehurst provides a comprehensive narrative and analysis of the creation of the Mana Motuhake party and its formative electoral experiences. Hazlehurst places the emergence of the party in the early 1980s in the context of historical patterns of resistance and cooperation with the European majority. Modern political networks, leadership styles, mobilization strategies, ideologies, political rhetoric and symbology are examined. The study provides an overview of the contested nature of Maori ethnicity and of conflicting modern and traditional loyalties.