Opinion: From the MTG: Fraudulent translations changed race relations

Kuru Taonga Voices of Kahungunu exhibition is on at MTG Hawke's Bay. Photo / NZME

In Kuru Taonga Voices of Kahungunu exhibition at MTG Hawke's Bay is Te Wananga (1874–1878), a newspaper.

Te Wananga was a Māori newspaper financed by settler Henry Russell and edited by Henare Tomoana at Pā Kōwhai from 1874 to 1875.

Te Wananga was associated with the Hawke's Bay Repudiation Movement, which rejected leases and sales of land. The purpose of the newspaper was to educate its readers about European business practices including land issues, reserves and Crown grants, which were discussed in depth.

The method used to acquire Māori land in Hawke's Bay had resulted in a protest movement amongst many Hawke's Bay chiefs and early settlers. Some Ngāti Kahungunu and Pākeha wanted to stop and reverse land sales and dealings, especially those sales forced by settlement of debt, some of that debt having been incurred for government purpose and expenditure.

Te Wananga was highly critical of the Head of Native Land Purchase Department, Sir Donald McLean, and his policy in acquiring land.

Below is the English translation of final clause in the deed of sale regarding blocks of Hawke's Bay land 185-1856 including Mataruahou (Scinde Island) and Ahuriri (Napier).

"Now we have fully considered wept over and bid adieu to this land inherited by us from our forefathers with all its rivers, lakes, waters, streams, trees, stones, grass, plains, forests, good places and bad and everything either above or below the soil and all and everything connected with the said land. We have fully and entirely given up under the shining sun of the present day as a lasting possession to Victoria the Queen of England and to all the Kings and Queens her successors for ever."

Fraudulent translations such as those above saw numerous transactions that changed race relations in Aotearoa forever. They changed "obligation" to entitlement, and ownership, and changed "partnership" to sovereignty over Māori.

Many early Pākehā settlers had preached against the signing of Te Tiriti because they feared it would open the door to English law. In fact it did, Pākehā now came under an Imperial Act, the New Zealand Settlement Act instead of Te Tiriti. This act settled Pākehā as New Zealanders. It did not settle Māori as New Zealanders, which alienated Māori from Pākehā.

The estrangement between Pākehā and Māori caused by the NZ Settlement Act has passed down the generations. Despite James Busby saying "we are one people", the NZ Settlement Act has not bred unity, it has bred fear.

The prediction from early Pākehā who preached against Māori signing Te Tiriti came to be true. Their fear of the long reach of Imperial Acts of Law from Windsor Castle on Aotearoa shores proved warranted. Annulling the honour of Te Tiriti and the practice of land acquisition gave rise to Te Wananga.

Mary Beatrice Boyd writes in her book The City of the Plains: A History of Hastings,

"Europeans failed to understand that friendship and hospitality were a deliberate strategy employed by the chiefs for their own purpose, namely to trade with Europeans to obtain new metal tools, implements, seeds, livestock and clothing to improve their own agriculture and living standards while holding fast to their land and Māoritanga. By peaceful co-existence with settlers, they hoped to avoid the consequences of Anglo-Maori wars in Taranaki and the Waikato, namely conquest and land confiscation. The price they paid for peace included the Heretaunga Block on which Hastings was established in1873."

Te Wananga was published for only four years.

Te Hira Henderson is Curator Māori, MTG Hawke's Bay