Willie Jackson says Chris Hipkins is the Prime Minister this country urgently needs. Photo / Whakaata Maori
THREE KEY FACTS:
The Treaty of Waitangi is New Zealand’s founding document and takes its name from the place in the Bay of Islands where it was first signed, on February 6 1840.
Missionary Henry Williams and son Edward translated the English draft into Māori overnight on February 4. About 500 Māori debated the document for a day and a night before it was signed.
The Treaty was prepared in just a few days.
Willie Jackson is a Labour MP
OPINION
Labour Leader Chris Hipkins has become the first leader of a major political party to acknowledge the historical truth that Māori did not cede sovereignty, in an interview on Te Ao with Moana.
At the time of the signing of the Treaty, the Maori population was between 80 – 100,000 people compared to 2000 settlers. The idea that Māori intended for the Treaty to take from them their tino rangatiratanga is laughable and only something that people like Christopher Luxon, Winston Peters and David Seymour cling to because they think rolling out reality is too hard.
People should know there was an English and Māori version of the Treaty and that the Māori version of the Treaty gained 90% of the signatures.
They should also know that when there is a difference in the versions and disagreements that international law states the indigenous version is the one that is upheld.
Māori didn’t sign away sovereignty no matter how much the angry reactionary right want that to be true and since the signing of the Treaty, the Crown and Māori have worked to try and flesh out the promise of the Treaty.
They managed this with the Treaty principles which provided a guide on how the Crown was obligated to work with Māori to honour a Treaty with an indigenous people who didn’t sign away their sovereignty. These principles were designed in 1987 by the courts and have been accepted and acted on by every government since then.
For the most part, Māori and pragmatic Pākehā have found ways to work together for a better shared future.
The problems have arisen when angry reactionary right wingers who don’t know their history start agitating against the process.
Acknowledging Māori didn’t sign away sovereignty doesn’t mean Parliament must tumble down or a new legal system is necessary, or a new currency created! This isn’t Zimbabwe, and Pākehā farmers are not suddenly going to be moved off their land.
Pākehā and Māori have been learning to work together for almost 200 years. Māori don’t want separatism; they want history accepted and genuine attempts to work together in partnership with the Crown to deliver tangible and much-needed resources so that Māori are able to move forward and turn around some of the negative statistics we all know act as a barrier for Māori to truly thrive.
Yes, the Māori Party want a Māori parliament, separate legal and health systems, and that’s fine and their right to advocate that. However, I believe that most Māori are more focused on housing, jobs and the welfare of their families, the bread-and-butter issues will always be at the forefront.
This along with Māori language and culture being accepted as an integral part of this country’s identity is what I think most Maori want. We don’t want a revolution, we just want to be treated like a respected partner that the judges of 1987 said we were.
I’m with Labour because the only way forward is by working together, accepting the truth of our history doesn’t damage our democracy, it strengthens and grows it for everyone.
By accepting the truth that Māori never ceded sovereignty, Chippy shows us he has the courage and cultural security in his own identity as a Kiwi to lead us away from the dark rhetoric of National, Act and NZ First whose anti-Māori, anti-Treaty, agenda is tearing this country apart.
Chris Hipkins is the Prime Minister this country urgently needs.
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