PoO was somewhat surprised to learn that a hikoi involving 40 horses had arrived at Parliament with 52,000 names on a petition against proposed amendments to Treaty references in legislation.
We had supposed hikoi involved walking, marching or some similar activity that would require sturdy footwear.
Click to view
Apparently not.
The Ngāti Kahungunu petition calls for a halt on government plans to amend references to the Treaty of Waitangi in legislation.
We learned from RNZ last Thursday about delivery plans.
Iwi representatives are planning to deliver the petition to Parliament on horseback, with the first group of riders departing Friday morning from Waimārama Marae.
Ngāti Kahungunu chair Bayden Barber said Waimārama was the home of Harawira Mahikai Te Tātere, a Ngāti Kurukuru chief who signed The Treaty of Waitangi at Waipūreku in 1840.
Then he told RNZ about the means of travel from Waimarama to Parliament, in Wellington, to deliver the petition.
It wouldn’t involve much walking.
Fair enough.
Walking from Waimarama to Wellington – a distance of around 318 kilometres – would take about three days and 15 minutes of continuous walking time via State Highway 2.
But that’s non-stop.
More realistically, walking that distance on roads would take about 10 to 14 days for an average hiker walking 20 to 30 kilometres a day with proper rest and sleep breaks.
Barber had other plans.
He would hikoi by horse, a beast of burden that Maori were using before the signing of the Treaty.
But not too long before.
The Encyclopedia of New Zealand says:
Europeans introduced horses to New Zealand from the early 19th century. At first horses were uncommon and expensive, so only chiefs owned them. Government officials often gifted horses to chiefs as a sign of goodwill.
Hapū (sub-tribes) banded together to buy horses, paying for them with large numbers of pigs or quantities of flax. Horses made overland travel faster, and probably helped bring neighbouring hapū and iwi (tribes) closer together.
From the 1840s, some tribes had significant numbers of horses and were able to gift them to other iwi. In some areas, Māori owned more horses than local Pākehā communities. By the 1850s, horses were the main form of land transport for Māori.
Horses were used by all iwi involved in the New Zealand wars of the 1860s.
It’s cheering to learn the colonisers didn’t bring only bad stuff.
Barber told RNZ:
“We will ride from Waimārama, and connect with riders from Heretaunga, Ahuriri and Wairoa at the Tukituki River. From there, we’ll travel through Havelock North.
“We will continue through Ngāti Kahungunu heartland, travelling past Pukehou marae, on to Waipawa, Waipukurau, Rākautātahi, Tāmaki-nui-a-Rua (Dannevirke) and Te Whakaoriori (Masterton).”
While travelling by horse would call for much less leg work than walking, it would not necessarily be significantly faster .
According to Google, it would take approximately 7 to 10 days to ride a horse from Waimārama to Wellington.
A healthy, well-conditioned horse travelling over multiple days can safely sustain a walking and trotting pace for several hours a day before requiring food, water, and overnight rest to prevent injury or exhaustion.
Mind you, the 40 horses in this case were carrying thousands of signatures as well as the riders.
Stuff reported:
Dozens of horses rested by the trees of Wellington’s cenotaph on Tuesday, as their riders delivered a petition with 52,000 names calling on Parliament to stop meddling with definitions of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Barber last Thursday said the horse trek would bring together tangata whenua, whānau, hapū, iwi and supporters from across the lower North Island “in a highly visible journey to deliver a message that Te Tiriti o Waitangi must be protected.”
The remarkable achievement is that the petition was delivered just five days later – just as Barber intended
The riders are expected to arrive in Wellington next Tuesday where the petition will be presented to Ikaroa-Rāwhiti MP Cushla Tangaere-Manuel at midday on the steps of Parliament, with the intention of presenting it to the House later that afternoon.
Are Guinness records being claimed?
Probably not.
In its report today, Stuff says:
While the horses were ridden for much of the journey, including along the Petone to Wellington cycleway, they were driven in horse floats for most of the longer distances.
The Stuff report also says the Government has agreed to amend 19 pieces of legislation, changing references to the Treaty such as “uphold” or “honour” and replacing them with wording that says legislation “takes into account” the Treaty.
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith rejected the claim that the changes would weaken Treaty obligations.
“Over the last 30 or 40 years, Parliament has made all sorts of references to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. Sometimes it’s ‘honour’, or ‘have regard to’, or ‘give effect to’, or ‘take into account’,” he said.
“We need to create some consistency here, in the interests of increasing certainty and supporting compliance. A core foundation of our success as a nation is predictability in the law.”
Labour MP Cushla Tangaere-Manuel formally accepted the petition and presented it to the House.
Bob Edlin is a veteran journalist and editor for the Point of Order blog HERE.
The Ngāti Kahungunu petition calls for a halt on government plans to amend references to the Treaty of Waitangi in legislation.
We learned from RNZ last Thursday about delivery plans.
Iwi representatives are planning to deliver the petition to Parliament on horseback, with the first group of riders departing Friday morning from Waimārama Marae.
Ngāti Kahungunu chair Bayden Barber said Waimārama was the home of Harawira Mahikai Te Tātere, a Ngāti Kurukuru chief who signed The Treaty of Waitangi at Waipūreku in 1840.
Then he told RNZ about the means of travel from Waimarama to Parliament, in Wellington, to deliver the petition.
It wouldn’t involve much walking.
Fair enough.
Walking from Waimarama to Wellington – a distance of around 318 kilometres – would take about three days and 15 minutes of continuous walking time via State Highway 2.
But that’s non-stop.
More realistically, walking that distance on roads would take about 10 to 14 days for an average hiker walking 20 to 30 kilometres a day with proper rest and sleep breaks.
Barber had other plans.
He would hikoi by horse, a beast of burden that Maori were using before the signing of the Treaty.
But not too long before.
The Encyclopedia of New Zealand says:
Europeans introduced horses to New Zealand from the early 19th century. At first horses were uncommon and expensive, so only chiefs owned them. Government officials often gifted horses to chiefs as a sign of goodwill.
Hapū (sub-tribes) banded together to buy horses, paying for them with large numbers of pigs or quantities of flax. Horses made overland travel faster, and probably helped bring neighbouring hapū and iwi (tribes) closer together.
From the 1840s, some tribes had significant numbers of horses and were able to gift them to other iwi. In some areas, Māori owned more horses than local Pākehā communities. By the 1850s, horses were the main form of land transport for Māori.
Horses were used by all iwi involved in the New Zealand wars of the 1860s.
It’s cheering to learn the colonisers didn’t bring only bad stuff.
Barber told RNZ:
“We will ride from Waimārama, and connect with riders from Heretaunga, Ahuriri and Wairoa at the Tukituki River. From there, we’ll travel through Havelock North.
“We will continue through Ngāti Kahungunu heartland, travelling past Pukehou marae, on to Waipawa, Waipukurau, Rākautātahi, Tāmaki-nui-a-Rua (Dannevirke) and Te Whakaoriori (Masterton).”
While travelling by horse would call for much less leg work than walking, it would not necessarily be significantly faster .
According to Google, it would take approximately 7 to 10 days to ride a horse from Waimārama to Wellington.
A healthy, well-conditioned horse travelling over multiple days can safely sustain a walking and trotting pace for several hours a day before requiring food, water, and overnight rest to prevent injury or exhaustion.
Mind you, the 40 horses in this case were carrying thousands of signatures as well as the riders.
Stuff reported:
Dozens of horses rested by the trees of Wellington’s cenotaph on Tuesday, as their riders delivered a petition with 52,000 names calling on Parliament to stop meddling with definitions of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Barber last Thursday said the horse trek would bring together tangata whenua, whānau, hapū, iwi and supporters from across the lower North Island “in a highly visible journey to deliver a message that Te Tiriti o Waitangi must be protected.”
The remarkable achievement is that the petition was delivered just five days later – just as Barber intended
The riders are expected to arrive in Wellington next Tuesday where the petition will be presented to Ikaroa-Rāwhiti MP Cushla Tangaere-Manuel at midday on the steps of Parliament, with the intention of presenting it to the House later that afternoon.
Are Guinness records being claimed?
Probably not.
In its report today, Stuff says:
While the horses were ridden for much of the journey, including along the Petone to Wellington cycleway, they were driven in horse floats for most of the longer distances.
The Stuff report also says the Government has agreed to amend 19 pieces of legislation, changing references to the Treaty such as “uphold” or “honour” and replacing them with wording that says legislation “takes into account” the Treaty.
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith rejected the claim that the changes would weaken Treaty obligations.
“Over the last 30 or 40 years, Parliament has made all sorts of references to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. Sometimes it’s ‘honour’, or ‘have regard to’, or ‘give effect to’, or ‘take into account’,” he said.
“We need to create some consistency here, in the interests of increasing certainty and supporting compliance. A core foundation of our success as a nation is predictability in the law.”
Labour MP Cushla Tangaere-Manuel formally accepted the petition and presented it to the House.
Bob Edlin is a veteran journalist and editor for the Point of Order blog HERE.
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