Māori never ceded sovereignty. Everyone with the privilege of being on this land is here because of the generosity of Māori, the indigenous people of Aotearoa. Te Tiriti o Waitangi benefits everyone!
They have beaten and legislated the language out of generations of my people, tried to shut down revitalisation, harmed so many in state care, stolen our land, overpoliced and made so many I know and love experience police brutality. Created education and justice systems that are monocultural and don't work. But te reo Māori will survive, te ao Māori will survive, tangata whenua will survive.
Land back, indigenous rights and liberation for all indigenous peoples, everywhere in the world.
Toitū te Tiriti! Toitū te ao Māori! Toitū te reo Māori! Toitū tangata whenua! Ake ake ake!
The Spinoff presents a simplified transcript of the speeches at the treaty signings in Waitangi, Hokianga and Kaitāia.
Naturally, a lot of discussion of the Treaty of Waitangi has focused on the translation and interpretation of words like sovereignty, rangatiratanga, and kāwanatanga, but as I read this I found myself wondering how our country’s history might have turned out had the catering been better organised.
(That’s supposing the insufficient food was an honest cock-up and not a pretext to hurry the chiefs into a decision without further time to discuss and digest the agreement.)
February 6th marks the anniversary of the signing of The Treaty of Waitangi and Te Tiriti o Waitangi in 1840. This was supposed to be a peace treaty between tangata whenua and British colonisers, to place the two sides of Aotearoa on equal footing.
This, of course was not the case. The Treaty of Waitangi was translated into Te Reo Māori by Henry Williams, an English missionary. Even though Williams was fluent in Te Reo, the two documents are so different that Te Tiriti should be treated as a separate document. There’s debate in the historiography, but the agreement is generally that the discrepancies were done on purpose, for the purpose of tricking kaumatua into signing a treaty that they would not have agreed to if they had known its true meaning.
There are two key differences between the Treaty and Te Tiriti, in specific translations of words. The first article translated sovereignty as kāwanatanga. The English version stated that the crown would have sovereignty over Aotearoa, whereas the word kāwanatanga indicated to māori governorship, a far less important title than sovereignty. The second article stated that māori would have possession over property, not a particularly strong right to the land, whereas it was translated to tino rangatiratanga in Te Tiriti. Tino rangatiratanga is a very important concept in tea ao māori, often translated as total sovereignty. This translation told the kaumatua signing the document that iwi would still hold total possession of all taonga, complete rights to whatever they deemed right for the land. Through tino rangatiratanga, tanagata whenua would total control and authority.
In recent decades, the Waitangi Tribunal, which deals with all treaty breaches, had agreed that Te Tiriti o Waitangi should be treated as the official document, and Aotearoa should be following what was written in the Reo Māori version rather than the English one. Yet that doesn’t fix the 150 years we faced where our land was violently stolen from us, or the way we were tricked into signing away everything that was important to us as tangata whenua. It also doesn’t stop people from regularly breaching this treaty with little to no consequence, including recently the Tribunal findings that the government has actively neglected the protection of māori during the coronavirus pandemic.
During Waitangi Day, we should be taking the time to reflect on the way māori have been violently mistreated by the crown, the government, pākehā settlers, and everyone else you could possibly think of. We signed this treaty expecting a harmony with pākehā, and they turned around and tricked us into giving away everything. We use this day to look at the way māori are still mistreated, and how we as individuals can work forward to heal what we can. Think about promoting te reo māori, the language that was beaten out of us for decades, think about incorporating treaty principals in your workplaces, classrooms, anywhere that māori might be. Think about supporting māori and giving us space for positive representations of our culture.
Do what you can, and help us fight for the tino rangatiratanga we were promised.
Would you believe I hadn't actually planned to go to New Zealand? For a good few years, I had talked about visiting Scotland, and then my friend went to South Korea to study and on one of our 2 am catch up calls, I said to her jokingly "haha, I could visit you during my two week break in summer!" "... would you?"
And then a month before my friend was due to leave for New Zealand I said "God I can't wait to travel, I have my passport freshly made, and I have funds" "... it would be nice to have company"
Anyway- to that little girl, in her bedroom two decades ago who learned that Sagittarius yearn to travel and like spontaneity, and didn't know what it meant -- you figured it out
Visiting the art gallery was a recommendation from someone who had visited it a few times, and I didn't think I would like it as much as I did. The exhibitions were thoughtful, the themes intriguing, and we were happily surprised to find a few of the Guo Péi dresses on display.
I'm usually the type to respect animals (and their instincts) enough to keep my distance, but Emus are some of the few animals I would keep a safe distance with out of fear. I am not terrified, it's not a fear, but I think it's what some could call "self-preservation." Anyway, this one is named Elvis and I didn't dare laugh about his hairdo in front of him, but now that there's an ocean between us, I feel safe.
We visited the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, where the Treaty of the same name was signed in 1840. This single Norfolk Pine was planted by Agnes Busby, the wife of the man who helped draft the Treaty. It's highly interesting history, and my sociological self was fully invested. I recommend a good read! (there are most likely better and more nuanced resources out there for those interested, but it does give a nice broad introduction). The tree is imposing, and I took a few moments to think about the generations it has seen pass by, and the conversations it has heard.
When I left, a month earlier, my brother - way further north than I am - had been dealing with waist-high snow for about a week. We finished our travels in Auckland, in December, where there was, of course, no snow. But, there were the beautiful blooms of pōhutukawa, and I was enamoured. They are these tall and large flowering trees that only bloom in December. They form these wonderful baubles of red threads, and I can see why they are loved.
Thank you for coming along on this journey, I hope these pictures can brighten up your day!☀️
