Hawke’s Bay leaders say if a conversation on the Treaty is what Parliament wants, then that conversation now has the potential to empower Māori, rather than disenfranchise them.
Thousands of Māori from around the country gathered in Waikato for a hui-ā-motu, or national hui, “to unify the nation”, over the weekend.
Initiated by Kiingi Tuheitia, the hui acted as a response to growing concerns over the Government’s policies relating to Māori, such as rolling back the use of te reo in the public sector and introducing a bill to redefine the principles of the Treaty.
Ngāti Kahungunu chair Bayden Barber attended the hui with a busload of iwi members from across Hawke’s Bay. He said it was very positive and focused on solutions.
“The numbers sent a message. People are concerned, and they showed up to show their support, solidarity, and unity.”
He said many iwi, including Kahungunu, already had their own meetings and knew what they wanted to put forward during the hui.
“This government is going to be a challenge, there is no doubt about that, and we oppose many of the policies that they implement and want to cut out,” he said.
A key topic of discussion was the recently leaked Ministry of Justice advice on a proposed Treaty principles bill.
Act leader David Seymour has said of the proposed bill that “Act’s goal is to restore the mana of the Treaty by clarifying its principles”.
There are three principles proposed: the Government has the right to govern all New Zealanders; the Government will honour all New Zealanders in the chieftainship of their land and all their property; all New Zealanders are equal under the law with the same rights and duties.
Act is standing by the bill, while National has repeated its position of supporting it no further than select committee stage.
It is yet to have a first reading or go before a select committee, which are the first steps for a bill to become law.
Seymour wants the bill to go to a referendum if it gets past the select committee stage.
A leaked paper from the Ministry of Justice said the proposed legislation could be “highly contentious” given the “fundamental constitutional nature of the subject matter” and the “lack of consultation with the public on the policy development prior to select committee”.
Barber said a key part of the hui, spurred on by the concern around these topics, was about practical resolutions on how Māori can lift themselves and create better outcomes.
“We have a lot of the potential within ourselves, and we have to unleash it,” Barber said.
“The Government has to play a role, and we need to keep them held to account.”
While not in attendance at the hui, Hawke’s Bay Regional Councillor and barrister Martin Williams said he had some “strong views and concerns about where things were heading” but also believed there was potential for the move to backfire and place Māori in a stronger position constitutionally.
Williams is a descendant of early settler Henry Williams’ brother William. Henry played a key role in New Zealand’s history when he was eventually given the job of translating the Treaty of Waitangi into Māori.
“I was told in my first lecture as a law student that Henry Williams deliberately mistranslated the Treaty in exchange for land. I was so violently shocked that I needed to find out what actually happened,” Williams said.
“It was exactly the opposite. Governor Grey did Henry in for being too sympathetic to Māori and having too much mana in their eyes. He got part of his land taken off him and was sacked by the church missionary society, which they apologised for in the 1990s.”
He said he had been looking into the implications of what had been proposed in the context of history.
“What I’ve more recently discovered is the language used by Henry was precisely as directed by Governor Hobson and his secretaries at the time as laid out in Dr Ned Fletcher’s book released last year.
“The version of the Treaty that Māori read and understood and signed was a very different document to the understanding of the likes of what the Act Party is circulating at the moment,” Williams claimed.
“If you are going to have a crack at the Treaty principles, which are really only necessary because of the uncertainty over the meaning of the Treaty, be careful what you wish for.
“When you get to the document itself, which can’t be repealed without undermining the legitimacy of our sovereign state, you’ll find it is a lot stronger than those principles are in terms of creating opportunities for co-governance and that sort of thing. As Bayden Barber said, don’t poke the taniwha.”
He said the Treaty was being relied upon as the platform for a Māori renaissance, both economically and culturally.
“Some Pākehā are on board with that, and some are struggling to understand or cope with it. We need to have a conversation about that at a constitutional level.”
He said Hawke’s Bay, of which 30 per cent of the population is Māori, is well-positioned to act as a key supporter of Māoridom.
Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi) is not itself a law, but rather a treaty.
However, since 1975, many laws have referred to the “principles” of the Treaty - effectively allowing Treaty rights to be enforced in a court of law.
The first to do so was the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 which established the Waitangi Tribunal, according to the Ministry for Culture and Heritage.
In the late 1980s, Justice Robin Cooke in the Court of Appeal was the first to outline what those “principles” were with any great detail.
Over time the definition for Treaty principles has been expanded.
For example, the Waitangi Tribunal and the courts have referred to the Treaty principles as partnership, mutual benefit, informed decision-making, that each Treaty partner has a duty to act reasonably, honourably, and in good faith, the Crown’s duty of active protection, and its obligation to remedy past breaches.
However, there is still no final or complete list of Treaty principles.
That is partly due to controversy about differences between the Māori version and English version of the Treaty.
Mitchell Hageman joined Hawke’s Bay Today in late January. From his Napier base, he writes regularly on social issues, arts and culture, and the community.