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Research dossier · General Reference

Rāhui

Cultural convention in New Zealand

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 25, 2026
Entity authoritySource title only
Source-derived summary

In Māori culture, a rāhui is a form of tapu restricting access to, or use of, an area or resource by the kaitiaki (guardian/s) of the area in the spirit of kaitiakitanga. With the passing of the 1996 Fisheries Act, a rāhui was able to be imposed by the New Zealand Ministry of Fisheries, a role that has since been taken over by the Ministry for Primary Industries. In the Cook Islands, raui have been put in place by the National Environment Service.

Editorial summary

“Rāhui” enters the record as cultural convention in New Zealand. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Rāhui, Cultural and convention can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1996—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Rāhui, Cultural and convention.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Rāhui” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Rāhui, Cultural and convention provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 25, 2026. The first chronological checks are 1996.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Rāhui”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Rāhui primary sources, Rāhui archive and Rāhui research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Rāhui”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Rāhui” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.