Interest in Treaty at dangerous low, says academic

Interest in Treaty at dangerous low, says AUT academic

Public interest in the Treaty of Waitangi has plummeted in the last two years, says AUT University academic and leading Treaty expert Professor Paul Moon.

"Despite the millions of tax-payer dollars being poured into Treaty education, there has been an alarming drop in public concern with anything to do with the Treaty," he says.

By analysing references to the Treaty in the media and gauging the amount of public discussion on it, Professor Moon estimates that the past two years represent a new low in awareness of Treaty-related matters.

He puts this down to several reasons, including a failure by many to see any relevance in the Treaty, the lack of progress in settling the hundreds of outstanding claims, and what he terms the "spectacular disinterest" in the Government's recent Treaty road show.

"We are possibly seeing the beginning of the end of the Treaty in the country's national life," warns Professor Moon. "If New Zealanders do not see a purpose in the Treaty, then in just one generation it could disappear altogether from the national consciousness, and will be remembered afterwards solely as an historical agreement."

--

Paul Moon, MA (Hons), MPhil (Dstnct.), PhD, FRHistS, is Professor of History at AUT's Faculty of Maori Development, Te Ara Poutama. His specialist areas of research include the Treaty of Waitangi and the early period of Crown rule in New Zealand.

Professor Moon has published two best-selling books on the Treaty of Waitangi. He has also produced the biographies of Governors William Hobson and Robert FitzRoy, and the Ngapuhi chief, Hone Heke, and the ground-breaking book Tohunga: Hohepa Kereopa. He has also written a major biography of the Ngapuhi politician and Kotahitanga leader Hone Heke Ngapua (1869-1909), and wrote the best-selling Fatal Frontiers – a history of New Zealand in the 1830s. Future books include a history of New Zealand in the 1840s and a major work on Maori cannibalism.

ENDS

© Scoop Media