Reality on Treaty
He iwi tahi tātou? No! What he [Governor Hobson] should have said was "He iwi kotahi tātou".
And we are still screwing it all up.
No, Tangaroa is not the god of the ocean. Tangaroa is the ocean. Or the "personification of the ocean".
Papatuanuku is the personification of Mother Earth, et cetera et cetera.
All of which raises many other important issues.
In order to be "He iwi kotahi tātou" all of those "taonga" that were supposed to be preserved and retained for and by the tangata whenua must be returned, the most important taonga being tikanga Māori.
In 1808 the Confederation of United Tribes was established. In 1816 they formed a Māori Court with laws based on tikanga Māori and enforced accordingly. In 1831 Ko Huiarau was established. This was an agreement between two parties, the United Tribes of New Zealand and the Crown of England, on equal terms.
And that Treaty of 1840 was also meant to give Pākehā the right to set up a Government for themselves under which they could control the lawless behaviour of some of the 2000 Pākehā in residence.
But what really happened was the formation of a settler Government that broke every law in the book, including the Ten Commandments, thus making the Treaty null and void.
That's a fact, people. Consequently, Māori have never had due process and equal rights under the law.
So-called Treaty settlements are, in reality, just more dodging and hiding the truths of history.
But we are making progress. Māori are now leading the assimilation process. They think a few million dollars and a governance entity is progress. Dreamers.
POTONGA NEILSON
Castlecliff
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