Fodder for the Treaty debate

Whether or not Helen Clark's inquiry into the Treaty gets off the ground, two new books will soon contribute to the country's hottest argument.

David Slack's rollicking Bullshit, Backlash and Bleeding Hearts: A confused person's guide to The Great Race Row (Penguin) hits bookstores this week. In August there'll be Marcia Stenson's more restrained but equally thoughtful The Treaty (Random House).

Slack, a speechwriter and one of that rare breed running a successful internet business (speeches.com), says his book was born out of "people talking about the Treaty without knowing what they were complaining about". That led to a quiz on his blog (Island Life on publicaddress.net), with most of the 5300 who've taken the test unable to get near a pass mark.

Slack prefaces most chapters with one of his 12 "test your treaty knowledge" questions, followed by a talkback quote, such as "I'll tell you what they had when we got here. Nothing. They were running around in grass skirts, killing and eating each other".

As well as making it a must-read for talkback hosts, the device sets the stage for a sweeping debate in which biculturalism, the Treaty itself, and government policy on Maori rights get all tangled up.

Slack untangles all strands - the bullshit "unsubstantiated assertions and sweeping propositions"; the Brash backlash "giving licence to throw the baby out with the bath water"; and the bleeding hearts - "this broad sympathy which says 'we must generally be nice to Maori', which is both patronising and wrong headed."

Stenson, a historian with a string of New Zealand history books to her name, takes a different tack. "I didn't want to write a book which told people what to think," she says.

Designed for someone applying for a job in which "knowledge of the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi is required", The Treaty is a history lesson with a difference. Instead of stopping "very safely a good 20 years before the current day" Stenson carries on to the present foreshore and seabed debate. Her sense of history and formative years at Tokomaru Bay Maori District High School bring a unique perspective.

"Part of my childhood was spent roaming the reefs of Tokomaru Bay with my Maori friends - collecting kina and paua and going back and having a feed. So I do know how there wasn't a lot of difference between land and sea."