Bruce Moon: Ngapuhi Gave Up Their “Sovereignty”- It Is False To Deny It!

Traditional Maori structure was tribal and hierarchical. Intertribal warfare was the norm. Violence was endemic.  Think of the enthusiasm with which muskets were adopted and tens of thousands of Maoris killed in the tribal Musket Wars. Think of the slaughter by Ngapuhi at Mauinaina, Te Totara and Matakitaki!  Chiefs and leaders held power as long as they were unbeaten by rivals. Those that lost, and those under their protection, suffered brutally with loss of autonomy, destruction of their lifestyle, loss of what they possessed: taonga, (goods) and other possessions, but duly guaranteed to them[i] and all New Zealanders in the Treaty. The winners of warfare on the other hand took control, enforced amongst other things by ritual executions, cannibalism, slavery, prostitution and headhunting.

To put it simply – in warfare, winner took all.

In some cases this meant near total extermination of tribes (as Tumatakokori were exterminated as a tribe by Ngai Tahu and its allies around 1800). In others it meant subjugation or ongoing attack and counterattack, neither side quite strong enough to totally eliminate the other.

All this is fully discussed by Paul Moon[ii] in “This Horrid Practice”.[iii]  There was “a pervasive sense that communities faced the threat of destruction at the hands of their foes.”[iv]

Notwithstanding it may have been the tribal Maori way of life, one can only imagine how terrifying it was.

Add to that, from 1772, a new tribe was identified by Maoris as entering the fray and instilling terror: the “Tribe of Marion” - the French.

In short: by 1840, Maori social structure could not protect itself.  Wiser chiefs of Ngapuhi recognized this.

The extraordinary solution to this was for Maoris to find a protector. This they did in the Queen of Great Britain, envisaged by them as the “Queen of England”.

• The British presence was already in NZ and not seen as threatening in the way of the French: the “Tribe of Marion”.
• By accepting the Queen as protector, no single Maori tribe or chief took control or attained superiority over any other.
• The British had the capability to enforce a new social order, effective for both Maoris and settlers alike.

In order to establish the new hierarchy the chiefs had to surrender their traditional authority (whatever it might be called and whatever its extent might have been) and accept that of the Queen.

The English word for this is “sovereignty”.

Obviously, there is no exact compatibility between languages nor power-based traditions. None the less, this fundamental change was understood and achieved by the Treaty of Waitangi. And this is the power of the word “Kawanatanga” - or “Sovereignty” as close as may be.

• Intertribal warfare largely stopped.
• Maori kept what they had in terms of possessions.
• All people in NZ received the protection of the Crown:
     - Internally, vis-a-vis other New Zealanders (both Maori and other!)[v]
     - Externally against those of other countries e.g. the French
• The Crown and New Zealanders (Maori and non Maori) enforced the arrangements,  e.g. when the Waikato and the Taranaki tribes attempted to displace them for their own benefit.
• Mechanisms were established to protect all parties engaged in land transactions.

And so New Zealand as a single political and social entity came into being, with a mix of people and cultures  under one sovereign.  That endures to this day. 

Extraordinary, really.

Current attempts to rewrite history in contempt of its known facts, notably by the Waitangi Tribunal and Ngapuhi, must be rejected firmly and for ever by the people of New Zealand.

Ceding kawanatanga was the  informed, deliberate, active transition from rule by tribal violence to the rule of law for all New Zealanders.

Now no system is perfect but systems do evolve over time.  (New Zealand no longer has a death penalty!)  But we should not be guilty of presentism: judging the acts and policies of the past by present-day standards.

It was a remarkable achievement in our country to weld together into a single nation, two people with the same rights and duties but vastly different physical origins, languages, cultures, religions, and technological attainment.  Perhaps the most striking evidence of that is the extensive interbreeding between the two to the extent that, however much some radicals today discount it, there do not exist today more than a mere handful of individuals of solely Maori ancestry.

Thus economic and social dynamics evolve over time. At any moment though, management must address issues in current time, with current resources, to create outcomes that are positive and sustainable for the future.  Clearly, this entails both short and long term action.  Attempts to judge it must be made within its own context.

It is absurd to try and rewrite time and history. Quite simply we were not there. Time travel does not exist. And even if it did there is no guarantee that there is anything to change or anything that can be guaranteed to be better.  But the facts of the historical record must be respected and accepted. Current activities of the Waitangi Tribunal and Ngapuhi rewrite the past and flagrantly ignore the historical record, concealing or distorting its facts for raw political and financial advantage.[vi]  It is all too obvious that the direct consequence may be anticipated of the transfer of massive amounts of taxpayer funds to the tribe on unsubstantiated excuses  – as has been happening too often over recent decades.

This is not good enough.  Resolute action by the government of the day is essential.  It is imperative for the good of New Zealand that the Waitangi Tribunal be abolished forthwith and remaining claims subjected to the normal processes of the Courts.  Regrettably, it is not clear that this is to be expected.

Footnotes:

[i]This –  and nothing else(!) –  was the purport of “tino rangatiratanga” in the Treaty!

[ii]Not a relation of Bruce Moon

[iii]P. Moon, “Penguin”, 2008, ISBN 978-0-14-300671-8, 2008, Ch. 23, “Death’s ‘Permanent Aggression’”

[iv]Ibid., p.151

[v]This failed of course in the so-called “Wairau Affray” when fourteen settlers were murdered by Te Rangihaeata.

[vi]As indeed in the Ngai Tahu report of the Tribunal, assessed by competent observers as a “fraud” and a “swindle”,  yet accepted by the compliant government of the day with massive payouts of taxpayer money to that tribe.  As one consequence of this tribe’s manipulation of the “system” which also granted it “charitable status”, this super-wealthy tribal business corporation listed a net operating surplus in 2013 of $50.86 million and paid a mere $160,000 in tax.  Ref: M.Butler, “Tribes, Treaty, Money, Power”, Tross, 2014, ISBN 187297036-9, p.96

Bruce Moon is a retired computer pioneer who wrote "Real Treaty; False Treaty - The True Waitangi Story".