New Zealand Māori Council formed

The Māori Council was described by Miria Szaszy as an undermining of wāhine Māori leadership and organisation.^[i]

The Māori Social and Economic Advancement Amendment Act 1961 contained the title ‘New Zealand Māori Council’.^[ii] The Act accorded recognition to District Māori Councils (which Māori had already established) and the New Zealand Māori Council of tribal executives (which, again, already existed in provisional form) as the apex of the tribal committee system. It gave these bodies the statutory powers and responsibilities that had been agreed between the treaty partners.^[iii] By 1961, 110 out of 330 Tribal Committees in existence were reported to be inactive, while 20 out of 67 Tribal Executive Committees were no longer functioning.^[iv]

The 1962 Act gave statutory recognition and powers to Māori self-government institutions: local Māori Committees and regional Māori Executive Committees, District Māori Councils (DMCs), the Māori Women’s Welfare League, and – at the top of the structure – the New Zealand Māori Council (NZMC), a national body comprising delegates from DMCs. Under the 1962 Act, the Māori Committees also received exclusive powers to control and supervise the Māori Wardens or wātene Māori, who first gained statutory powers under the 1945 Act.