The first week of Wai 2500 hearings took place at Tūnohopū Marae in Rotorua. Photo / Te Ao News
The first week of Wai 2500 hearings took place at Tūnohopū Marae in Rotorua. Photo / Te Ao News
Māori veterans will march into the spotlight again this week as the second hearing of the Wai 2500 Military Veterans Kaupapa Inquiry gets under way at the Waitangi Tribunal.
Famously, Sir Robert “Bom” Gillies, the last surviving member of the 28th Māori Battalion, which fought in Europe for six years, has said he regrets ever serving in World War II, after returning to a country he says treated him like a second-class citizen.
“They just discharged us and more or less forgot about us,” Gillies told 1News.
“We didn’t get much. We had a big welcome, got on the train and then come home and that was it, yeah.”
Historians have recorded that very few Māori veterans from that war acquired farms under settlement schemes administered by the Lands and Survey Department. In the North Island, Māori men were banned from buying alcohol.
This stage of the Waitangi Tribunal-based hearing aims to provide an opportunity for more veterans to share their stories and air grievances that will help tell an official narrative of Māori experiences in the military.
The aim is to ensure they and current serving personnel are supported as the Treaty of Waitangi intended.
Senior leaders including army chief Major-General John Boswell, who is attending the hearings, acknowledge the experiences of Māori veterans are critically important.
Boswell says: “It’s equally important that we as a defence force engage with our veterans and their whānau, so that we can learn from our past and find opportunities to better serve our Māori veterans.”
The inquiry covers all arms of the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) - Ngāti Tūmatauenga (New Zealand Army), Te Taua Moana o Aotearoa (Royal New Zealand Navy) and Te Tauaarangi o Aotearoa (Royal New Zealand Air Force) - and seeks to hear stories from across the board, whether operational or routine, during war or peacetime, at home or abroad.
It is specifically looking into tikanga and te reo Māori within Te Ope Kātua o Aotearoa (New Zealand Defence Force).
“This ensures veterans are better informed on the developments the Defence Force has made, including in the use of service marae and tūrangawaewae. This aims to address several claims in the Wai 2500 Military Veterans Kaupapa Inquiry that pre-date those changes,” Boswell says.
“It’s what we need to do for our people and protect them in the future.”
During this second round of hearings, the tribunal will hear concerns raised by ex-service Māori and their whānau about service in Korea and Southeast Asia (1950s to 1990s), Antarctic operations, nuclear testing and peacekeeping (1950s to 2010s) and current Crown policy and practice.
Addressing Māori military veterans’ concerns
The Wai 2500 Military Veterans Kaupapa Inquiry is part of a series of inquiries set up in 2014 by the Waitangi Tribunal and focuses on grievances and claims of Māori military veterans and their whānau.
It aims to investigate the Crown’s actions and policies for Māori veterans who served in the New Zealand military forces, examining whether these actions and policies were in breach of the Treaty of Waitangi.
A total of 109 claims and eight interested parties were approved for inquiry.
Kaumātua Ruawhitu Pokaia (centre), NZDF Waitangi Tribunal project director Lieutenant Colonel Martin Dransfield (left), and Chief of Defence Force, Air Marshal Kevin Short.
World War II and Vietnam concerns
The first hearing of the Wai 2500 focused on claims relating to the issues of World War II and current Crown policy and practice with concerns raised by Māori ex-service people and their whānau.
Testimony also came from Vietnam veterans who continue to suffer from the effects of exposure to Agent Orange, a powerful herbicide used during the Vietnam War. Despite the Government offering one-off ex gratia payments to those affected by Agent Orange exposure, it was argued the criteria for receiving these payments are too narrowly defined, leaving many veterans without compensation.
At the time of the last hearing, former Defence Minister Ron Mark addressed the issues and said “that part of being in the military is learning history so you don’t make the mistakes of the past”.
He said the Defence Force has changed in recent decades as it has become infused with Māori culture to become the entity known as Ngāti Tūmatauenga.
