The public benefit of Indigenous charities: What can New Zealand learn from the Australian and Canadian approaches?

At their core, charities provide "services that fulfil social and economic needs" not otherwise met. This is especially true when novel public needs arise; charities are often the most efficient means to adequately address them. The significance of this cannot be undervalued. In New Zealand, non-profit institutions contributed $8.1 billion to GDP for the financial year ending March 2018. But despite charities' substantial contributions to society, important discussion arises when it comes to indigenous altruism and how it interplays with Western notions of "charity". Legal charity "does not align with the traditional worldviews of [indigenous] communities, according to which there is no sharp distinction between family and public life". However, indigenous groups are some of the most socially, politically and economically disadvantaged peoples, stemming from colonisation and institutional oppression. Generally, Aboriginal peoples will experience lower levels of education, lower average income, poor general health and higher unemployment rates. The question thus arises whether indigenous organisations are likely to meet the legal requirements of charitability; namely, can the public benefit of their purposes be adequately established under law?