In: The Routledge international handbook on decolonizing justice (pp.333-345) / edited by Chris Cunneen, Antje Deckert, Amanda Porter, Juan Tauri and Robert Webb

Despite family violence being recognized as an artefact of colonization, the State has continued to impose amelioration strategies, structures, and penalties which require communities, including Māori, to respond to family violence in a State-prescribed manner; strategies imbued with Eurocentric values and epistemologies. However, such imposition counters te ao Māori (Māori epistemologies) that exist within hapū (subtribes) and Iwi (tribal) structures and is in direct opposition to Te Tiriti o Waitangi (The Treaty of Waitangi). This chapter presents an Indigenous-sociopolitical analysis of family violence responsiveness in Aotearoa and draws on three case studies of community-based specialist kaupapa Māori (for Māori, by Māori) organizations to understand Māori-centric family violence responsiveness. It is argued that the predominance of State-led family violence responses is erroneous and is a mechanism of sustained colonization. Rather, the three case studies demonstrate the urgent need for the State to first acknowledge that its continued control of family violence responsiveness is negatively impacting Māori in response to family violence. There is also a need for the State to engage in true partnership with Māori and devolve decision-making and responsiveness in accordance with Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Failure to do so will result in the continuation of a host of inefficiencies and the continued overrepresentation of Māori in criminal justice statistics. (Author's abstract). See table of contents for other relevant articles. Record #8316