Piers Seed writes about the current definition of taonga:
According to the Waitangi Tribunal the definition of taonga is:
“Treasures’: ‘taonga’. As submissions to the Waitangi Tribunal concerning the Māori language have made clear, ‘taonga’ refers to all dimensions of a tribal group’s estate, material and non-material – heirlooms and wahi tapu (sacred places), ancestral lore and whakapapa (genealogies), etc”.
Stripped of the Tribunal’s carefully curated mystical framing this definition can be loosely translated in layman’s terms as:
“anything and everything in the world, physical, theoretical, spiritual, metaphorical, known or yet to be discovered”.
If you can see it, it is taonga. If you can think of it, it is also taonga. If you can’t think of it, it is still taonga. Taonga, then, is clearly one hyper-powerful word, seemingly the one word to rule them all.
This might be a slight exaggeration but as it has been argued it includes the telecommunications spectrum, maybe not by much.
And was this what was intended:
“The current definition [of taonga] differs from the historical definition, noted by Hongi Hika as “property procured by the spear” [one could understand this as war booty or defended property] and is now interpreted to mean a wide range of tangible and intangible possessions, especially items of historical cultural significance.”
So this is part of the entire challenge of “honouring” the Treaty. Interpretations today can be radically different to what they were when it was signed.
So the question is who should decide what is the correct interpretation? The Waitangi Tribunal? The Courts? Parliament?
I think it has to be Parliament.
David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.
7 comments:
I think it is Hongi Hika. This is the most relevant source for time and place relative to use of the word. It also reflects social understanding of the time. Anything else is a function of colonialism.
If claims to the Tribunal are based alleged breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi signed in 1840, then the meaning of the words in the ToW MUST be those applying in 1840. The meaning of words cannot be changed in order to give credence to fatuous claims. Politicians and the Judiciary have allowed this to continue for far too long enabling the so-called "Elite Maori" to "steal" fortunes from hardworking taxpayers, both individuals and businesses. It is also well-passed time that the racist Waitangi Tribunal was abolished, together with the Waitangi Act 1975.
If all of us are to be New Zealanders, the all race-based legislation MUST be repealed. Most of us thought that that is what we would be getting when we elected the Coalition !
Let's not forget that the rats that Maori brought to NZ have to be treated as taonga with due reverence.
Why are NZers so scared of being ostracized for challenging such utter nonsense ?
A little while ago on the radio a staff member at Auckland Uni. described Marie Clay's remedial reading programme Reading Recovery (RR) as taonga.
From my perspective RR is no gem but rather a curse which has caused the reading failure of thousands, if not millions of children world wide. As far as I know Clay was not Maori and certainly pre -colonial Maori had no written language.
Clearly the word has been bastardized and refers to all sorts of profane nonsense. I suggest inventing a new Maori word to refer to a few genuinely sacred things in the same way English has blessed, hallowed and holy as well as sacred. Making up Maori words is a undertaking that ridiculously, academics are already doing anyway.
One that intrigues me is wild pigs introduced by Cook and others. Despite being the ideal spreaders of kauri tree disease the pigs and the intrusive hunting of are ardently defended as taonga.
The English word used in the final draft, then translated into Te tiriti is "property".
Therefore that's exactly what it means, regardless of anyone else's interpretation of the word taonga.
So the Waitangi Tribunal is a taonga. No wonder the invertebrate wants to be guided by it. Saves him making decisions and taking responsibility.
The brown clowns are already on control of NZ. The invertebrate is making the rest of
us slaves to them.
Post colonialism has crept up and overtaken us.
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