As I stood at Waitangi on Monday morning at a place called Tou Rangatira alongside 2000 other whanaunga and community members gathered for the dawn blessing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi Marae, I reflected on our tūpuna (ancestors) who 185 years ago gathered there to consider signing Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
I do not believe that our ancestors would have ever imagined a world where their descendants live in poverty, where average life expectancy for Māori would be seven years less than non-Māori, their mokopuna underachieving across all statistics and filling up prisons across the country.
It is unconscionable to think that our ancestors would have entered into an agreement with the British Crown that would see their people left landless and destitute in their country. Yet here we are, Aotearoa New Zealand.
The independent panel report from 2012 about He Whakaputanga o Te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni (1835) & Te Tiriti o Waitangi (1840) – Ngāpuhi Speaks – puts it succinctly:
“In Aotearoa, we have suffered political and historical amnesia. Māori histories have been disregarded in favour of colonial fairy tales which, repeated often enough, become accepted as true. It is time for the Crown legacy of deceit to end.
“The Crown has survived on a notion that the Treaty of Waitangi is a treaty of cessation and therefore the legitimator of their rule and authority to govern.
“Ngāpuhi nui tonu are very clear that Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the Treaty of Waitangi are irreconcilable. Ngāpuhi are not bound to a document they did not sign.”
The photo exhibition He Kura Toi Tangata opened this week at the Waitangi National Trust to commemorate 50 years of the Waitangi Tribunal.
The tribunal is a permanent commission of inquiry set up to investigate Māori claims relating to the Treaty of Waitangi, and has been pivotal in providing a place where the breaches of Te Tiriti o Waitangi can be heard, and Māori history in the lands of Aotearoa can be shared.
There is still so much that the people of New Zealand need to learn and understand about our colonial histories.
Hūhana Lyndon.
At a time when Māori-Crown relations are at their worst and Māori have felt legislative attacks since the formation of the current coalition Government, we’ve seen a massive drive for kotahitanga as part of the response.
Thanks to the late Kīngi Tūheitia, who called Hui ā Motu in January 2024 where thousands mobilised to uphold Te Tiriti, culminating in the largest hīkoi on to Parliament late last year, our communities are awake, they are working hard towards that aspiration of kotahitanga as was the legacy of Kīngi Tūheitia.
At the reopening of Te Tiriti o Waitangi Marae this week, Taranaki leader Dr Ruakere Hond used his mihi to query the idea of kotahitanga (unity) as our final destination.
He put forward mahi ngātahi for consideration, which engenders collaborating with collective responsibility, accountability and commitment to support and care for each other throughout all endeavours.
It is in the mahi ngātahi that peoples maintain their identity and uniqueness but through the “mahi” commit to working together collaboratively towards shared goals.
Similar to the mahi ngātahi of men and women on the marae, we all have our roles and can contribute collectively to the running of the marae and tribal affairs.
It was like the mahi ngātahi for the Toitū Te Tiriti hīkoi – many diverse communities, ages, ethnicities, tribes from across the country mobilising for a common goal – upholding Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
So in 2025, we look to mahi ngātahi to work to protect and prioritise people and planet, underpinned by Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
As Kīngi Tūheitia explained, under Te Tiriti o Waitangi there is room for all to work together as communities.
We must do this as we come to grips with the full extent of the Government’s fast-track legislation and respond in mahi ngātahi as Tangata Whenua and Tangata Tiriti.
Te Tiriti provides a way for us to advocate for te taiao and the wellbeing of our communities. This is the same with tackling poverty – mahi ngātahi move together through collaboration towards the common goal.
Now is not a time to sit idly by and think it’s all too much.
Over 300,000 submissions for the Treaty Principles Bill and 23,000-plus submissions on the Regulatory Standards Bill show that our community knows once again how to mobilise.
Lets keep up the momentum – the waka for kotahitanga requires mahi ngātahi.
There are paddles in the waka for all, we just need to move in unison towards our vision of Te Tiriti and Constitutional Justice for our mokopuna of tomorrow.
Hūhana Lyndon is a Green Party List MP based in Whangārei, Te Tai Tokerau. Lyndon’s portfolios include health, Māori development, Whānau Ora and forestry. She is a proud descendant of Ngāti Hine, Ngātiwai, Ngāti Whātua, Waikato Tainui and Hauraki.
