Shane Jones

Te Aupouri

1959 -

Shane Jones was born in Awanui and studied at St Stephens College, the University of Auckland and Victoria University. He worked for the Ministry for the Environment where he established the Māori Policy Unit between 1988-1990 and worked in the Prime Minister’s Department under Geoffrey Palmer in 1993. With the assistance of a Harkness Fellowship Jones completed a Masters in Public Administration at Harvard University. He then took up an appointment on the Treaty of Waitangi Fisheries Commission and became its chair in 2000. As a member of the Labour Party Jones entered parliament in 2005 and was re-elected in 2008. He is a composer of waiata and Radio New Zealand has recorded a series of Jones’ short stories for the Letterbox Lizard programme.

Biographical sources

  • Ralston, Bill. "The Man from Mangonui." New Zealand Listener 16-22 June 2007. http://www.listener.co.nz/issue/3501/features/9004/the_man_from_mangonui.html 18 Sept. 2010.
  • Te Ao Mārama: Regaining Aotearoa: Māori Writers Speak Out. Comp. and ed. Witi Ihimaera. Contributing ed. Haare Williams, Irihapeti Ramsden and D. S. Long. Vol. 2: He Whakaatanga O Te Ao: The Reality. Auckland, N.Z.: Reed, 1993. 246.
  • Employment and the Future of Work: Harkness Employment Conference 9-10 May, 1995 Parkroyal Hotel, Wellington. Ed. Gary Hawke. Wellington, N.Z.: Institute of Policy Studies, Victoria U, 1996. vii.

    Fiction

  • "Te Aho o te Marama." Nga Pakiwaitara a Huia 1995. Te Whanganui-a-Tara [Wellington, N.Z.]: Huia, 1995. 9-12.

  • Music

  • "Kei Konei Taku Putea Kōrero." [first line] Te Hikoi Ki Waitangi, 1985. [?:Waitangi Action Committee, 198?]: 32.
  • Written by Shane Jones and Hone Harawira in Māori.

    • Non-fiction

  • "Te Kawariki." Te Hikoi Ki Waitangi, 1985. [Otara, N.Z.: Waitangi Action Committee, 198?]: 50-52.
  • Jones writes a descriptive history of the formation of Te Kawariki which emerged after the Turangawaewae hui of September 1984. He discusses their journey to Waitangi which took the form of part-protest and part-wananga during which time the members (all uri of Te Aupouri, Te Rarawa and Ngāti Kahu) visited key tribal locations and marae.
  • "Waitangi Hui: 4-6 Feb 1985: Submission Presented by Shane Jones." Te Hikoi Ki Waitangi, 1985. [Otara, N.Z.: Waitangi Action Committee, 198?]: 53-55.
  • Seven submissions in which Jones advocates that the Treaty be ‘entrenched in N.Z. constitutional law as a bill of rights to which all proposed legislation must conform before being passed into law’; that the Waitangi Tribunal have increased power; that kaimoana be protected in accordance with the second clause of the Treaty; that celebrations of the Treaty of Waitangi cease until the Treaty is honoured; that Te Reinga be made a Māori reserve under the guardianship of the Te Hiku O Te Ika tribes; that New Zealand be renamed Aotearoa; and that ‘all lands returned via the Waitangi Tribunal be reinstated to the hapu as appropriate.’
  • "Te Kawana Tianara." Te Hikoi Ki Waitangi, 1985. [Otara, N.Z.: Waitangi Action Committee, 198?]: 87-88.
  • Jones writes of the appointment of Sir Paul Reeves as Governor General of New Zealand. He reflects on the role of Governor General and the impact that Reeves, as a Māori, could have in refusing to give royal assent to legislation ‘which contravene[s] [Māori] rights under the Treaty of Waitangi.’
  • "The Bill of Rights & Te Tiriti O Waitangi." Te Hikoi Ki Waitangi, 1985. [Otara, N.Z.: Waitangi Action Committee, 198?]: 94-98.
  • Jones writes that the ‘purpose of this paper is to delineate the nature of Māori opposition to the Bill of Rights. [It] also considers the subject of national self-determination.’ Jones begins by examining the implications and interpretations of the terms "kawanatanga" and "tino rangātiratanga". He then outlines the various ways the Bill of Rights overshadows the inherent rights of Māoridom embodied in the Treaty of Waitangi, particularly the second article reference to tino rangātiratanga. In looking at Māori attempts to restore rangātiratanga, Jones notes that Pakeha response has either been to complain of apartheid, or that Māori are seeking to return to a pre-colonial society, or to demean the amount of Māori blood in people.
  • Foreword. The Resource Management Act: Kia Matiratira: A Guide for Māori. Wellington, N.Z.: Ministry for the Environment/Manatu Mo Te Taiao, 1992. 3.
  • Co-authors Roger Blakeley and Shane Jones. Jones and Blakeley discuss the provisions within the Resource Management Act of 1991 to ‘safeguard Māori heritage interests’ by making “consultation between consent agencies and tangata whenua... mandatory”. They state that the purpose of this booklet is to provide Māori with the necessary information and to ‘enable Māori to use the opportunities afforded by the Resource Management Act to achieve their own objectives, whether they be conservation or development oriented.’
  • Foreword. Taking Into Account the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi: Ideas for the Implementation of Section 8 Resource Management Act 1991. Diane Crengle. Wellington, N.Z.: Ministry for the Environment/Manatu Mo Te Taiao, 1993. 5.
  • Jones writes that this publication ‘is offered as a contribution of ideas to help improve understanding of how the Treaty may be applied in the pursuit of better environmental outcomes.’ He adds that this paper ‘is an ideas piece, intended to stimulate discussion and suggestions for the exploration of relevant principles of the Treaty of Waitangi and their relationship to the Resource Management Act. It should not be treated as definitive.’
  • "From Iwi and Government." Redistribution of Power? Institute of Policy Studies, Victoria University, Wellington, N.Z., 1990. An extract rpt. in Te Ao Mārama: Regaining Aotearoa: Māori Writers Speak Out. Comp. and ed. Witi Ihimaera. Contributing ed. Haare Williams, Irihapeti Ramsden and D. S. Long. Vol. 2: He Whakaatanga O Te Ao: The Reality. Auckland, N.Z.: Reed, 1993. 246-252.
  • "Unemployment Issues and the Treaty of Waitangi." Employment and the Future of Work: Harkness Employment Conference 9-10 May, 1995 Parkroyal Hotel, Wellington, N.Z. Ed. Gary Hawke. Wellington, N.Z.: Institute of Policy Studies, Victoria U of Wellington, N.Z., 1996. 157-160.

  • Poetry

  • "He Whakakaro/A Thought." Trans. Shane Jones. The Penguin Book of Contemporary New Zealand Poetry/ Ngā Kupu Tōtohu o Aotearoa. Ed. Miriama Evans, Harvey McQueen and Ian Wedde. Auckland, N.Z.: Penguin Books, 1989. 259.
  • The speaker recalls his first stumbling steps.