Жаңазеландиядағы "Kāwanatanga" сөзінің мағынасы

Māori word for governorship
the government of New Zealand, also known by this Māori name

Kāwanatanga is a word in the Māori language of New Zealand, derived from the English word "governor". Kāwanatanga was first used in the Declaration of Independence of New Zealand, 1835. Kāwanatanga reappeared in 1840 in Article 1 of the Treaty of Waitangi, where the Māori text "te Kawanatanga katoa" corresponds to the English text "all the rights and powers of Sovereignty".

The first part of the word, Kāwana, is a transliteration into Māori of the English word governor. The suffix tanga is very similar in meaning and use to the English suffix ship, for example rangatiratanga (chieftainship) and kīngitanga (kingship). So a literal translation of the word would be governorship. This word had little meaning to the chiefs signing the treaty, since the concept of being governed by an overseeing authority was alien to Māori. What understanding Māori may have had of the term was derived principally from the Bible and in particular Herod's Governorship. At the time the Bible was one of few long printed texts in Māori enjoying wide distribution. Judith Binney has suggested that the chiefs may have assumed the term referred to the governor, William Hobson, and understood it as referring to his governorship rather than understanding that they were ceding "governance".

The meaning attached to this word, and in particular how it relates to rangatiratanga is important to discussion of the Treaty of Waitangi.