David Seymour did something brave and important at Waitangi, for which he has received not the slightest credit, then or in the week since. He delivered his entire speech in Māori at the pōwhiri on the national marae.
It would take immense strength of character to address a crowdin a language you are still learning and what he did was important because the language will not be secure until it is spoken on both sides of politics.
Seymour’s effort put other political leaders to shame, especially the ones who like to call this country Aotearoa. Chris Hipkins managed the usual Māori greetings before reverting to English, James Shaw needed another male MP to speak Māori for the Greens.
Afterwards, Shaw and co-leader Marama Davidson sniffed that Seymour had read his entire speech and added that “racism in any language is still racism”. When reporters put that comment to Seymour, he looked just sad and said, “That’s Marama.”
We are going to have an important debate in this election year about the disproportionate power proposed for Māori in the name of the Tiriti (which, users of that term should know, is not quite the same as the Treaty). Every time the muzzling word, racism, is employed we need to be told exactly what was said. Here, in English, is what Seymour said:
“It’s an honour to speak here again at Waitangi. I know that election year will involve discussion of the Treaty. Act is committed to three goals when it comes to the Treaty. One is cherishing the Māori language and culture. Two, putting right the wrongs of the past. Three, giving every child and opportunity to flourish. We all have a lot of work to do.
“In my opinion, there should not be disagreement on those goals. However, people will disagree about how to achieve them. Some say the Treaty calls for a partnership between two types of people, Tangata Whenua and Tangata Tiriti. We disagree because division has never worked.
“We believe in tino rangitiratanga for all, under the kawanatanga of a government that leaves us alone as much as possible. We believe in property rights over taonga. In fact, I think those signatories might have been Act supporters. I know some may disagree. That’s healthy. I ask that people focus on how best to achieve equality rather than division. Thank you and all the best for 2023.”
By reciting all of that in te reo, the Act leader was living up to its first stated Treaty goal. His gesture was politically as well as linguistically brave because, as he will know, at least some of the voters he needs this year feel they are getting rather too much Māori language.
They are feeling force-fed with it, not just by the present government but by the likes of television news and weather presenters. It is as though broadcasters have been given a mandate to make cultural change, whether their audiences like it or not. There is a sense that the country is being changed in ways that have never been put to a vote.
NZ First leader Winston Peters. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Winston Peters has picked up this unease and hoping it will return his party to Parliament. He will assuredly not be speaking Māori. In fact, I can’t recall ever hearing Peters speak Māori. He sat with the hosts at Waitangi, saying nothing, looking as contented as an old predatory cat.
If Peters gets the backlash vote this year nothing much will change, he loses interest when elections are over. But if Seymour gets that vote there is a good chance Māori will get more of the kind of sovereignty Dame Tariana Turia advocates, self-governance not co-governance. Charter schools, Whānau Ora.
Unlike National and Labour leaders, Act’s respected the wish of the Waitangi National Trust that the powhiri be conducted entirely in Māori this year. As one who saw Waitangi Day ceremonies 25 years ago, I can understand that request.
Māori do ceremony well and Pākehā frankly do not. It’s not the fault of English, it’s us. Even by comparison to other English-speaking people we are an awkward, tongue-tied breed.
Nations need poetry as well as prose in their politics. American presidential elections, pre-Trump, were distinguished by soaring flights of national spirit. Britain, of course, has the monarchy for all the ceremony a nation could need. We have Waitangi.
To be on the Treaty grounds after the dawn karakia, the oratory and hymns still in the ear, and watch the sun come up over the bay, is to feel the heart and hope of this country. Difficult questions of sovereignty and governance do not go away but they are for another day.
