Editing Treaty of Waitangi (section)

====The Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 and the Waitangi Tribunal====

During the late 1960s and 1970s, the Treaty of Waitangi became the focus of a strong Māori protest movement which rallied around calls for the government to "honour the treaty" and to "redress treaty grievances".<ref name="Maori Protests" /> Māori boycotted Waitangi Day in 1968 over the [[Māori protest movement#The Māori Affairs Amendment Act|Māori Affairs Amendment Act]] (which was perceived as a further land grab) and Māori expressed their frustration about continuing violations of the treaty and subsequent legislation by government officials, as well as inequitable legislation and unsympathetic decisions by the Māori Land Court continuing alienation of Māori land from its owners.<ref name="Maori Protests">{{Cite web |url=https://www.teara.govt.nz/en/nga-ropu-tautohetohe-maori-protest-movements/page-1 |title=Ngā rōpū tautohetohe – Māori protest movements |last=Keane |first=Basil |date=20 June 2012 |website=[[Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand]] |access-date=23 July 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170814054727/https://www.teara.govt.nz/en/nga-ropu-tautohetohe-maori-protest-movements/page-1 |archive-date=14 August 2017}}</ref> The protest movement can be seen as part of the worldwide [[civil rights movements]], which emerged in the 1960s.{{sfn|Orange|1987|p=209}}

As a response to the protest movement, the treaty finally received limited recognition in 1975 with the passage of the [[Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975]], which established the [[Waitangi Tribunal]], but this initially had very limited powers to make findings of facts and recommendations only.<ref name="NZhistory Treaty Debated">{{cite web | url=http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/politics/treaty/the-treaty-in-practice/the-treaty-debated | title=The Treaty in practice: Page 6 – The Treaty Debated | work=NZHistory.net.nz | date=7 July 2014 | access-date=16 February 2015 | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150210135046/http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/politics/treaty/the-treaty-in-practice/the-treaty-debated | archive-date=10 February 2015}}</ref> The act was amended in 1985 to enable it to investigate breaches of the [[Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi]] back to 1840,<ref name="NZhistory Treaty Debated" /> and also to increase the tribunal membership. The membership was further increased in another amendment in 1988.<ref name="Palmer Maori law review" />