She seems to forget that Seymour is in fact a senior member of Parliament who happens to be a deputy Prime Minister and free speech being not quite dead yet in this country, he has every right to make this challenge to church leaders – or anybody else for that matter. Equally, those church leaders have every right to reply to him should they wish to do so. All good, surely when the topic is quite an important one.
Moreover, Salmond claims that “[w]hen the Act Party took the idea of a referendum on Te Tiriti to a general election in 2023, ... “ 91.4 percent of the electorate did not support the proposal.
This is simply untrue. 91.4% of the electorate evidently did not support Act’s proposals as a whole. That says nothing about support for any particular proposal. In coalition negotiations, Prime Minister Luxon evidently understood this better than Salmond.
She goes on to say “Te Tiriti o Waitangi is written in te reo, at a time when that language and its associated tikanga were dominant in New Zealand.” Somewhat more accurately, the Treaty was written in the Ngapuhi dialect of Maori, one of about fourteen recognizably different dialects, some being mutually unintelligible. The modern version of a Maori language, “te reo”, vastly influenced by the profound impact of the English language and British civilization and developments of almost two hundred years since simply did not exist. Dame Anne seems unaware of this actual fact.
“Tikanga” or Maori practices roughly equivalent to a body of law were really not relevant. The word occurs just once in the treaty, in Article Third, as the Williams’ translation of “rights” (of British subjects) conferred on all Maoris, women and their many slaves included - an extraordinary privilege for that date and age.
Salmond proceeds with a somewhat fatuous analogy with what might have been the case in France and Germany with a person unfamiliar with the local language trying to get a significant document adopted. In fact, as Colenso’s remarkably detailed account of proceedings shows, at Waitangi when many persons were bilingual, Hobson’s explanation in English of his treaty document and the British constitutional situation, followed by Henry Williams’ translation to Maori did not give rise to any debate or assertion that they did not say the same thing. The chiefs, it is abundantly clear, understood that by signing the Treaty, they became subordinate to the Governor, the representative of the Queen. All, in brief, was very much above board. In three words: they ceded sovereignty.
Salmond continues with a swinging attack on the honesty of the Act Party, saying “Act is putting its faith in the power of propaganda – the spread of misinformation” while she praises Maori practice saying that 1840, “te ao Māori was in many ways more democratic than the United Kingdom”. She does not mention that in the United Kingdom the long process of evolution towards a universal franchise had already begun with the passing in 1832 of the First Reform Act. Likewise she does not care to mention that in Maori society cannibalism and female infanticide were standard practices and a considerable part of the population were slaves. Intertribal warfare was endemic and nearly a third of the population had been killed – and mostly eaten – in the preceding few decades. As Paul Moon (not a relation) has remarked, there was “a pervasive sense that communities faced the threat of destruction at the hands of their foes” [with] “almost unbearable anxiety experienced by all Maori communities.” (“This Horrid Practice”, “Penguin”, 2008, p.151.)
It is almost beyond belief, surely, when Salmond continues “Article 3 in the English draft of the Treaty, in which the Queen of England gave the indigenous inhabitants ‘all the Rights and Privileges of British Subjects,’ was not much of a gift.” Oh! Anne! Do you really believe this?
The simple fact is that in the decades following 1840 the process of electoral reform was taking place in the United Kingdom, while New Zealand, with few precedents for guidance, was following a parallel path with due appreciation of the rights of all citizens, Maoris and women included.
And so, whatever Salmond thinks, the ACT Party’s Treaty Principles Bill as I write, is about to receive the attention of Cabinet and, one trusts, further action will properly reflect the interests of all the people of New Zealand. That’s democracy in action.
Bruce Moon is a retired computer pioneer who wrote "Real Treaty; False Treaty - The True Waitangi Story".
9 comments:
You'd assume wouldn't you that Ms. Salmond being an historian and all would know all this historical record already.........Oddly it seems she is oblivious to it and one wonders why with her pedigree she is so blindly ignorant. Is it deliberate or something else?
Well said, Bruce.
Agitators like Salmond persist in promulgating the totally false narrative that Maori did not cede sovereignty.
They have re written history and re written the Treaty itself. (Now calling it "Tiriti")
Thank you for your scholarship which surpasses that of Salmond, who once, it seems, had credibility. This whole current debate is so ignominious.
There have been so many lies told that have been accepted as fact with no pushback from anywhere that Māori seem to think they can just carry on. They say if you tell a lie often enough it will be accepted as the truth. That is what has happened here.
Now all the land was stolen. The language was beaten out of little children to take away language and culture. A church was burnt down full of women and children. The peaceful people of parihaka were raped and plundered. It is impossible for change anyone’s mind even with written proof. The Chinese whispers method of history surpasses any recorded evidence no matter how good the evidence is. And now the public record is being quietly altered to ensure only one narrative is out there. The wrong one. I despair that people are so stupid they just accept whatever is dished out to them. And now apparently the only way to fix race relations in nz is for pakeha to grow up and accept that Māori have a deep pain that has grown for nearly 200 years and we need to come to The table with open hearts and a genuine desire to make amends for the atrocities meted out to Māori so many years ago. I almost vomited. I am so sick of it.
You missed a bit anon@12.17, "...open hearts and WALLETS..."
Of course, now with almost half of our Parliament now thinking Maori didn't cede sovereignty, that surely has to the biggest and most blatant lie of them all.
It is truly sickening, but so much of it has been substantially aided and abetted by our truly corrupt MSM. Why is our Govt permitting it? And as TV1 continues to bleed us of money why, for a moment, do we put up with the likes of, John Campbell who no doubt pulls a bloated salary to spew forth the kind of nonsense and disinformation he does?
But as for that, Dame Salmond, Bruce has summed it up very well. Purportedly she's something of an academic - she clearly needs to go back and study some more.
even Kiingi Tūheitia recognized maori ceded sovereignty when he called for the Treaty of Waitangi to be written into legislation so politicians “can’t change nothing”. (Yvette on KB)
Salmond also brushes over the fact her beloved church leaders stole the Maori innocent beliefs. Lecturing them on how wrong they are and that the old gods must be thrown away.
It would be good to see her comment on the letter signed by 13 Ngapuhi chiefs in 1831 to king William, asking him to be their friend and protector, which lead to the TOW and New Zealand becoming a British colony. Hence, the British colonisation of NZ was by invitation.
In the Bible it says(paraphrased) your slave becames your master look out. Prov 30:21 Look at South Africa!
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