Ruth Berry: Kingitanga could unite iwi in pan-tribal group

In his coronation speech, the first Maori King, Potatau Te Wherowhero, stressed the spirit of unity symbolised by the kingship.

He likened his position to the "eye of the needle through which the white, black and red threads must pass" - "Kotahi te kohao o te ngira e kuhuna ai te miro ma, te miro pango me te miro whero."

While the Kingitanga has often been called a Waikato initiative, its origins have been traced back to Otaki on the Kapiti Coast.

Momentum began to build after Tamihana Te Rauparaha, son of the famous Ngati Toa chief, travelled to England in 1852 and met Queen Victoria.

He believed the act of uniting Maori might help fend off the divide-and-rule tactics of the colonisers and his cousin Matene Te Whiwhi began investigating potential candidates.

Potatau Te Wherowhero was finally chosen in 1857, when many chiefs laid their lands and services at his feet, although not all joined the movement.

The Kingitanga fought off European encroachment and developed its own form of governance which included a Minister for Pakeha Affairs.

It embodied, some historians say, a sense of Maoriness for the first time. But there was a payback.

The Waikato wars and land confiscation followed, creating increasingly hard times.

The third King, Mahuta, crossed a bitter divide to become a member of the Legislative Council and the Executive Council of Parliament.

But it was Te Puea who once again placed the Kingitanga on the national political stage, rebuilding a centre for the movement at Ngaruawahia.

She worked with Sir Apirana Ngata to redevelop land-based resources and to embrace kapa haka in a manner which had long-term national ramifications.

She tirelessly lobbied politicians on all manner of things and brought them to Ngaruawahia, often overshadowing the titular leader, the shy King Koroki, Dame Te Ata's father.

It was Princess Te Puea who encouraged the King to send his adopted son Robert Mahuta to school, instead of becoming the mechanic his father wanted him to be.

With Dame Te Ata, it was Sir Robert who many years later again thrust the Kingitanga into prominence, when in 1995 Tainui was encouraged to take the controversial plunge and sign the first historical land claim deal. It was a deal against which all other Treaty settlements are now benchmarked and a settlement which caused much internecine angst.

At times the Kingitanga has had considerable political power.

Does it still? The settlement of its Waikato River claim remains a potential benchmark for other iwi - but not on the scale of the land claim.

It has a tribal authority sitting behind the new King and a minister of the Crown, Nanaia Mahuta, but so do other iwi (albeit without a king).

Proposals floated over the weekend and warmly received by senior Tainui kaumatua Tui Adams moot the reconvening of a pan-tribal body, under the Kingitanga/Tuwharetoa mantle.

The emaciated remains of the Maori Council mean it can't be construed as such a body and the Maori Party's four MPs can hardly claim to represent "Maori" opinion.

Neither could the forum being proposed, but it could act as an important vehicle to research, and drive politically, common issues.

Temporary pan-iwi groups have been set up in recent times - such as Te Ope Mana a Tai during the foreshore debate.

But there is a place for the establishment of a more permanent body with a longer term view which can also convene with speed on emerging issues. Would the Government have been able to avoid consulting such a group first in the wake of the Court of Appeal ruling which sparked the foreshore furore?

While suggestions for pan-tribal bodies have in the recent past led nowhere, perhaps, in concert with Tuwharetoa and others, the Kingitanga might again play a national role in unifying iwi.