Yet as we confront another Waitangi Day full of debate, there are many eager to get out their chisels and carve our history into stone.
We seem to have fallen into a place of either/or when it comes to te Tiriti o Waitangi. Either it is a promise of partnership or a declaration of duties. Either we are ‘tiriti-centric’ or we are dishonouring the treaty. Either we respect cultural rights or universal human rights. Either it is article two or article three. Either it is everything or it is nothing.
My question this Waitangi Day is whether there is still a place to say it is both a founding document of this country upon which our status as a nation rests and a flawed, human effort designed with the issues of 1840 in mind; three short articles that to be relevant to succeeding generations will need to remain a living document open to debate.
Some today – on all sides of the argument – seem to want to say ‘this is what it is and nothing else’. To speak for the signers as if they were there. To leave no room for doubt or compromise. That is a risky way to look at history.
The United States has fallen into this certainty trap, casting its constitution not as an effort to make rules for a government in a certain place and time, but as something sacred and non-negotiable. Something inviolate and holy.
Look at the debate of the right to bear arms in the second amendment. Rather than being seen as a response to an issue from the 1700s it has become for some akin to the word of God.
The result is increasingly polarisation. Why would we wish such certainty on our country? Insisting that we define the treaty and its principles once and for all could lead many places, but it ensures one thing. That the debate on te tiriti becomes a zero-sum game that each side will feel it must win, or lose its voice forever. We are making the stakes too high.
As tempting as it is to want to resolve a debate once and for all, and in politics to get a win for your side that might outlive you, the risk is ongoing bitterness and division, the very thing everyone insists they are trying to avoid.
New Zealand has a fluid and patchwork constitution. That creates its own problems, but it does allow us to adapt and evolve alongside our understanding of our past. And our present. And our future.
This is not to say there aren’t facts and certainties in history. There are. But our understanding of that history and what we do with those facts is always evolving and up for debate. Which is a good thing. Because there’s no more a single correct view of history than there was a single correct view amongst the people gathered at Waitangi in the early days of February in 1840.
If you want to understand the chaotic uncertainty swirling around that day, you only have to read the missionaries’ quotes of the rangatira present or the ‘on one hand-on the other hand’ instructions William Hobson had from Lord Normanby, Britian’s Secretary of State for War and Colonies.
Their concerns and motivations were many. People on both sides wanted to see Maori protected from the worst of a wider world that was about to change them forever. International trade and travel had been a part of life – especially in the north – for a couple of generations, but mass settlement was about to be something new. Maori sailors wanted protection on international ships. There were worries about the criminals coming across from Australia, navigation rights for Maori ships and traders, the impact of the French here and in Europe. Britain fretted about its empire in China, India and Afghanistan, and the rise of Russia. Maori were dealing with the traumatic impact of the Musket Wars, the Crown was wrestling with the potentially traumatic impact of thousands of its people arriving in a land beyond its sway.
So many threads. So many reasons to sign or not sign a treaty. So reductive to think we can boil it all down into a few lines, slogans or principles 184 years later.
The stone of history cannot be just shaken from our shoe. We have to learn to live with it by learning more about our past, listening more intently to each other and accepting that all our arguments are only part of a complex picture. We have to live with our history, not decide or judge it. Put down our chisels. Only then can we learn from it and from each other.
Tim is one of the founders of Pundit. He has worked as a journalist for over 20 years. This article was first published HERE
My question this Waitangi Day is whether there is still a place to say it is both a founding document of this country upon which our status as a nation rests and a flawed, human effort designed with the issues of 1840 in mind; three short articles that to be relevant to succeeding generations will need to remain a living document open to debate.
Some today – on all sides of the argument – seem to want to say ‘this is what it is and nothing else’. To speak for the signers as if they were there. To leave no room for doubt or compromise. That is a risky way to look at history.
The United States has fallen into this certainty trap, casting its constitution not as an effort to make rules for a government in a certain place and time, but as something sacred and non-negotiable. Something inviolate and holy.
Look at the debate of the right to bear arms in the second amendment. Rather than being seen as a response to an issue from the 1700s it has become for some akin to the word of God.
The result is increasingly polarisation. Why would we wish such certainty on our country? Insisting that we define the treaty and its principles once and for all could lead many places, but it ensures one thing. That the debate on te tiriti becomes a zero-sum game that each side will feel it must win, or lose its voice forever. We are making the stakes too high.
As tempting as it is to want to resolve a debate once and for all, and in politics to get a win for your side that might outlive you, the risk is ongoing bitterness and division, the very thing everyone insists they are trying to avoid.
New Zealand has a fluid and patchwork constitution. That creates its own problems, but it does allow us to adapt and evolve alongside our understanding of our past. And our present. And our future.
This is not to say there aren’t facts and certainties in history. There are. But our understanding of that history and what we do with those facts is always evolving and up for debate. Which is a good thing. Because there’s no more a single correct view of history than there was a single correct view amongst the people gathered at Waitangi in the early days of February in 1840.
If you want to understand the chaotic uncertainty swirling around that day, you only have to read the missionaries’ quotes of the rangatira present or the ‘on one hand-on the other hand’ instructions William Hobson had from Lord Normanby, Britian’s Secretary of State for War and Colonies.
Their concerns and motivations were many. People on both sides wanted to see Maori protected from the worst of a wider world that was about to change them forever. International trade and travel had been a part of life – especially in the north – for a couple of generations, but mass settlement was about to be something new. Maori sailors wanted protection on international ships. There were worries about the criminals coming across from Australia, navigation rights for Maori ships and traders, the impact of the French here and in Europe. Britain fretted about its empire in China, India and Afghanistan, and the rise of Russia. Maori were dealing with the traumatic impact of the Musket Wars, the Crown was wrestling with the potentially traumatic impact of thousands of its people arriving in a land beyond its sway.
So many threads. So many reasons to sign or not sign a treaty. So reductive to think we can boil it all down into a few lines, slogans or principles 184 years later.
The stone of history cannot be just shaken from our shoe. We have to learn to live with it by learning more about our past, listening more intently to each other and accepting that all our arguments are only part of a complex picture. We have to live with our history, not decide or judge it. Put down our chisels. Only then can we learn from it and from each other.
Tim is one of the founders of Pundit. He has worked as a journalist for over 20 years. This article was first published HERE
9 comments:
There is a difference between evolution and plain old bullying and aggression based on lies and abuse.
I disagree.
We cannot allow activist judges gradually embellish the Treaty with meaning it never had.
For once Kiwis need to grasp the nettle and sort this bloody mess out. Define those elusive principles (if they even exist) and sort out our laws, because as things stand this circus is holding back the development of the nation.
But then, one side is always expected to pay for its perceived historical failings. Why is that?
The Tiriti o Waitangi was only 1 of 6 Documents that made New Zealand into a British Colony with a Governor and Constitution that set up New Zealand’s political, legal and justice systems under one flag and one law, irrespective of race, colour or creed. Governments have completely ignored the other 5 documents that have allowed the Tiriti o Waitangi to be manipulated and mis-interpreted never intended by those who signed it in 1840. The Six Documents are;
1. Letter from the 13 Ngāpuhi Chiefs – 1831. The government ignores the letter the 13 Ngāpuhi chiefs wrote to the King of England asking him to be their guardian and protector. This letter shows Maori were in trouble and needed British protection, not only from themselves, but they were afraid New Zealand was about to be annexed to France.
2. Declaration of Independence – 1835. The government ignores the Declaration of Independence that was a complete failure as the chiefs could not form a united body to claim sovereignty over New Zealand. A fact ruled by Chief Justice, Sir James Prendergast in 1877, “No political body existed capable of making cession of sovereignty.
3. Queen Victoria’s Royal Charter – 1839. The government ignores Queen Victoria’s 1839 Royal Charter/Letters Patent that placed New Zealand under the dependency of New South Wales. Britain could not have placed New Zealand under the dependency of New South Wales if Maori had sovereignty over New Zealand.
4. Tiriti o Waitangi – 1840. The government ignores the fact, the Tiriti o Waitangi only asked the Maori chiefs to give up their governments (Tribal control) to Queen Victoria in Article 1. Article 2 guaranteed both Maori and Pakeha the rights to their lands, settlements and property, and Maori could only sell their lands to the Crown at an agreed price. Article 3 made Maori British Subjects with the same rights as the people of England. No more, no less, no Partnership, and definitely no Co-governance, but since the Tiriti o Waitangi was signed, its Maori words have been continually mis-translated to give Maori special rights over all other New Zealand Citizens. As Attorney General, Sir Geofrey Palmer stated on the ABC in 1990, “It is, now, a document that is so vague and unclear, that is its primary problem”.
5. Queen Victoria’s Royal Charter – 1840. The government ignores Queen Victoria’s 1840 Royal Charter/Letters Patent that separated New Zealand from New South Wales dependency and made New Zealand into a British Colony with a Governor and Constitution that created New Zealand’s Legislative and Executive Councils and granted authority to Governor Hobson to make laws. Without Queen Victoria’s 1840 Royal Charter/Letters Patent, New Zealand would have remained under the dependency and laws of New South Wales.
6. First Sitting of the Legislative Council – 1841. The government ignores the First Sitting of the Legislative Council in 1841 that set up New Zealand’s political, legal and justice systems under one flag and one law, irrespective of race, colour or creed.
Until we force governments to recognize these 6 Documents that made New Zealand into a British Colony under one flag and one law, irrespective of race, colour or creed, the Tiriti o Waitangi and the history surrounding it will continue to be rewritten giving Maori special rights and privileges never intended by those who signed it at Waitangi on 6 February 1840 with the words, “He iwi tahi tatou – We are now one people”, before being taken around the country and signed by over 500 chiefs.
There is no other document in New Zealand’s history that comes anywhere near to a true Founding Document and first Constitution than Queen Victoria’s Royal Charter/Letters Patent dated 16 November 1840, but we must not ignore the other 5 documents that made this possible.
For copies of these 6 documents, log onto: http://www.onenzfoundation.co.nz. Researched by: The One New Zealand Foundation Inc. Est: 1988. (Copyright) 3 January 2024.
I agree with Andrew Osborn, It is a bloody mess and Waitangi day celebrations should be among the first to go as they are worse than a bloody mess . The Waitangi shemozzle is a disgrace to law abiding people .
MSM inflame and provide disinformation which screams for the mostly far north Waitangi party paid for by taxpayers to be abolished . If various iwi want to have a gathering paid for by themselves ok.
When you drill down to the inconsistencies in NZ pandering to part Maori and minimal part Maori and start with the push for more Maori and Islanders introduction to medical school and understand that part Maori etc need C pass and other students attendees need A plus passes, the idiocy of a separted by ethnicity NZ is shown warts and all.
I know of NZ part maori doctors who proudly state they passed with A passes . Good on them.
Tim, the only stone of history in the shoe is that a stone age warring tribal society with no written language, no wheel, no pottery, slavery and eating your enemy could ever have a partnership with the British Empire. How utterly ridiculous but the idiotic mainstream media keep promoting the bullshit. Kiwialan.
Also disagree. NZ has so much to worry about at the moment but this is all anyone can talk about. Fix it once and for all so that we can get on to fixing the economy and housing and infrastructure and education.
"The earth belongs to the living,not the dead",it's time we binned the treaty and all the BS that accompanies it.
Well said Steve.
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