A senior lecturer at Waikato University's Te Piringia-Faculty of Law says it is time Maori stopped relying on the court system to resolve their arguments.
Dr Robert Joseph has just returned from the United States, where he was a guest of Harvard University, which has just published results of a 20-year study of North American Indians.
He says the ability of tribes to be successful financially due to strong leadership, self governance and the ability to sort out their own disputes, are all applicable for iwi in New Zealand.
Dr Joseph says all tribes need to have their own dispute resolution mechanisms so they can resolve internal grievances instead of running off to the court.
He says the latest example of an iwi going back and forth to court is Waikato-Tainui.
