By David Small for Kanaky Aotearoa Solidarity, 19 November 2024

Te Tiriti o Waitangi is a crucial starting point for decolonization in Aotearoa/New Zealand. No equivalent exists in Kanaky/New Caledonia which France annexed by force in 1853. Kanaky Aotearoa Solidarity firmly believes the Te Tiriti should be valued – both for what it represents historically and for the possibilities that it provides for all those committed to building a just future in this country.

The Treaty Principles Bill seeks to rewrite history and derail efforts to redress historical injustices and address their contemporary consequences. In opposition to this Bill, Te Hikoi mō te Tiriti arrives at Parliament almost exactly 40 years after the Kanak independence movement mobilized to boycott and disrupt the election on 18 November 1984.

Kanaky Aotearoa Solidarity supports te hikoi and says Toitū te Tiriti! Māori never ceded sovereignty!

New Zealand was colonized and the authority of all governments was established on the basis of a false claim that Māori ceded sovereignty to the British Crown.

Since 6 February 1840, the Crown and subsequent settler governments have acted as though nothing more than Article One of the (English language) Treaty of Waitangi had any constitutional standing. They took this as a cession by Māori of full sovereign power which the Crown asserted in the establishment of a settler colony, creating political, economic and cultural institutions without consultation with Māori.

Parliament, courts and police are all based on Treaty breaches.

The Crown assumed ultimate authority and acted unilaterally in breach of its promise to Māori. It took it upon itself to make and impose laws (through the parliament they created), to adjudicate disputes (through the courts they created) and to enforce those laws and judgments (through the Police and military they created).

Although the Crown claimed to derive sovereignty from the English language Treaty of Waitangi, it has persistently and systematically breached its obligations under Article Two of that document to guarantee to Māori “the full exclusive and undisturbed possession of their Lands and Estates Forests Fisheries and other properties which they may collectively or individually possess”.

Te Tiriti is the document that Māori agreed to.

Furthermore, to the extent that there was agreement on 6 February 1840, it was in the form of te Tiriti o Waitangi (in te reo Māori) and not the Treaty of Waitangi. It was te Tiriti o Waitangi that Māori understood and signed, and in that document the Waitangi Tribunal

determined “Māori did not cede their sovereignty”. On the contrary, in te Tiriti the Crown acknowledged and pledged in te Tiriti to uphold te tino rangatiratanga of Māori. “At no stage … did rangatira who signed Te Tiriti in February 1840 surrender ultimate authority to the British” (Waitangi Tribunal, 2014, p.xxii)”[1]

Until the late twentieth century, New Zealand’s parliament, courts and other institutions that were created, designed and dominated by Pākeha consistently ignored or rejected all Māori attempts to seek redress for breaches of the very agreement that those institutions relied on for their legitimacy. During this time the education system and media kept New Zealanders largely ignorant of the country’s colonial origins and their ongoing impact on Māori.

Recognition of Māori legitimacy is very recent.

It has only been in recent decades that New Zealand’s institutions have shown any recognition of the legitimacy of long-standing Māori grievances and calls for new te Tiriti-based models of operating. It is not a straightforward process to rectify nearly two centuries of Māori exclusion from the power and influence they were promised on Waitangi Day 1840. And attempts by successive governments and other public institutions to respond to this challenge have been far from perfect.

The Treaty Principles Bill seeks to rewrite the Treaty with an anti-Māori spin, relying on public ignorance and fear about the Treaty and various (often imperfect) attempts to address the injustices that stem from treaty guarantees being ignored for so long. It is mischievous, deceitful, manipulative and divisive.

Aotearoa is fortunate to have te Tiriti!

Unlike other colonial contexts, including our nearest neighbour Kanaky/New Caledonia, Aotearoa has a written agreement that honours the mana and rights of Māori and that formed the basis of a new country, one that includes non-Māori alongside Māori. That agreement is te Tiriti o Waitangi. It cannot be ignored or rewritten or put up for debate or voted on. It stands as is and provides a starting point for creating a just future for all.

We are fortunate to have te Tiriti. Our future depends upon it.

Kanaky Aotearoa Solidarity supports te hikoi and says Toitū te Tiriti!

[1] https://forms.justice.govt.nz/search/Documents/WT/wt_DOC_85648980/Te%20Raki%20W.pdf

© Scoop Media