1 Came, H. (2013). A fair go for all: A proďleŵatiĐ ĐoŶtriďutioŶ to aŶti- racism praxis in Aotearoa in R. Scherman & C. Krägloh (Eds.), Walking the talk: The 2012 collection of oral presentations from the AUT School of Public Health and Psychosocial Studies. Auckland, New Zealand: AUT University. ‘A Fair Go For All’: A Problematic Contribution to Anti- Racism Praxis in Aotearoa Heather Came Abstract In New Zealand, the Human Rights Commission is the lead agency in countering institutional racism. They have recently undertaken a major research project, A Fair Go For All (Human Rights Commission 2011), to inform the development of a national strategy/approach to countering structural discrimination. This paper, from an activist scholarship standpoint argues their chosen methodological approach has compromised the the research findings by ignoring the power relations inherent in researching racism and the minimising both the significance of Te Tiriti o Waitangi 1 and historic determinants of institutional racism against Māori in Aotearoa. Rather than focus on practitioner bias (personally-mediated racism) and prioritising addressing ethnic inequalities (the outcome of institutional racism) this paper advocates for a Tiriti based systems change approach to transforming institutional racism as it uniquely manifests in the neo-colonial context of Aotearoa. Key words: Institutional racism, anti-racism praxis, activist scholarship, Te Tiriti o Waitangi Background Racism is the product of particular socio-historical contexts. Emerging evidence from Dunn and Geeraert (2003) argue convincingly that racism has a geographic specificity. While Bakalian and Bozorgmehr (2009) contest that specific events such as 11 September 2001 twin-tower bombings can profoundly impact how particular ethnic groups experience racism. Jones (2003) describes these fluctuation of racism as racial climate a phenomenon that can be either quantitatively or qualitatively measured. A key challenge in developing an enduring national strategy to counter structural discrimination is to make it robust enough to endure changes in racial climate. 1 By Te Tiriti o Waitangi I am referring to the Māori text of the Treaty of Waitangi as signed by Hobson and the majority of Māori rangatira (chiefs) on behalf of hapū (sub-tribes) on 6th February 1840 at Waitangi - not the later developed English version (Huygens, Murphy, & Healy, 2012).