Dr Michael Bassett: The Treaty or Te Tiriti? It Matters.....

If you are watching the bizarre goings on at Waitangi, keep an eye out for which politicians use the term “The Treaty”, and which refer to what was signed on 6 February 1840 as “Te Tiriti”. The Treaty is the term that was used originally, and it described a three-clause document that ceded sovereignty over New Zealand for ever to Queen Victoria. In return, the Queen guaranteed Maori chiefs control over their lands and “taonga”, and in the third clause guaranteed Maori the same “rights and duties” as were enjoyed at that time by Englishmen. The Treaty of Waitangi is the name by which the document was known for more than 150 years.

Peter Bassett: Understanding Te Tiriti — Or Just Selling an Anointed Version?

If the Treaty of Waitangi now governs schools, hospitals, councils and community life, there is one small problem: it doesn’t say so.

That gap — between what the Treaty actually says and what is now claimed in its name — is where Roimata Smail’s Understanding Te Tiriti operates, quietly turning modern policy choices into historical inevitabilities.

Geoff Parker: New Zealanders Aren’t “Leaving the Government Behind” - They’re Pushing Back

Jack McDonald says voters are “looking forwards, not backwards.” He’s partly right. New Zealanders are looking forward — but what they’re leaving behind is a decade of cultural and ideological overreach that crept into public policy with little public consent.

Pee Kay: To Educate or To Indoctrinate?

Surely that must be the question headmasters, teachers, education unions and school boards of trustees must have asked themselves upon being notified by the Minister of Education of the government’s decision to remove the requirement for school boards to give effect to the Treaty of Waitangi.

By reading the responses by the New Zealand Principals’ Federation, the NZ Educational Institute (teachers and principals union) and the New Zealand School Boards Association, it is obvious to everyone that, yes, they did ask themselves that question but the answer they arrived at did not fall on the side of “to educate”, no, no!

They very clearly see their role is to INDOCTRINATE!

Sean Rush: Letter to the Roseneath School Board

Response to Your Letter Regarding Upholding Te Tiriti

Dear Members of the Board,

I am writing in response to your recent letter to the Government stating your intention to uphold Te Tiriti. I have been a proud resident of Roseneath since 2013, my two children were pupils at the school, I have supported the school in fundraising activities and I chaired the Roseneath Resident’s Association. I also did a term as a Wellington City Councillor. I will continue to champion the school.

Judy Gill: Are Our Schools Teaching NZ Values — Or The UN Agenda?

New Zealand’s education system has shifted far beyond teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic. Increasingly, it mirrors the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), embedding international agendas into the classroom. The result is that our children are being shaped by global policy frameworks rather than by the values of a free and secular society.

Three themes dominate: the climate apocalypse, Te Tiriti principles, and Te Ao Māori spirituality. Each aligns neatly with UN education targets.

Mike's Minute: Who is breaking up the industry stopping us from doing business?

The National Public Health Service is exactly what's wrong with this country.

The Health Minister, who shouldn't have had to, intervened in their submission to the district council looking at the application for McDonald's in Wanaka.

Why was the health service offering a submission? Because the council asked them to.

John Raine and David Lillis: Can a Te Tiriti-Led University be Politically Neutral?

Critical Social Justice Ideology in Universities of the Western World

In “The Treason of the Intellectuals” [1], Sir Niall Ferguson describes parallels between a new politicisation of universities throughout the Western World and that which occurred in the German Weimar Republic in the 1920’s, resulting in German universities such as Heidelberg and Tubingen losing their top international standings.

David Lillis: Is Tertiary Education for Learning or for Indoctrination?

“Any edifice that rests on the shifting sands of contemporary academic fashion is bound sooner or later to fall. The university of the future will, paradoxically, need to offer its students an education with deeper historical roots.” (Ferguson and Howland, 2024). 

Compulsory Courses at the University of Auckland

The University of Auckland is set to deliver courses entitled ‘Waipapa Taumata Rau’ (University of Auckland, 2024). All undergraduate programmes there must include a Waipapa Taumata Rau core course that students must complete within their first year of study.

Dr Peter Winsley: Tikanga, law and information asymmetry

Justice Joe Williams in his 2013 paper Lex Aoteoroa made a case for Māori tikanga being recognized as New Zealand’s “first law”. Tikanga existed prior to New Zealand’s development of a legal system based on the British model. Without written language pre-European Māori tikanga is not well documented. However, its customs and norms governed, for example, relationships between people and the environment, property ownership, and conflict resolution.

Nick Hanne: Critic, Conscience and Kaupapa: the ongoing Free Speech clash at UoA

Spare a thought for election officials in India who have just run the largest national election in human history. Equally impressive though is the fact that India’s is just one of more than 60 different national elections which will take place in 2024, affecting 50% of the global population. If you were an alien visiting from outer space you could be forgiven for thinking this impressive democratic spectacle represented an upward trend toward greater global liberty and enlightenment.

Everything, however, is not what it seems.

Dr Peter Winsley: New Zealand’s democracy, Te Tiriti and the Marine and Coastal Area Act

New Zealand is a democracy that is being challenged by race and tribal-based activism. A democracy implies universal suffrage, one person/one vote, votes being of equal value, the rule of law, and an open and educated society with freedom of speech.

New Zealand is still a well-functioning democracy compared, for example, with the United States. However, voters are not all treated equally. The Canterbury Regional Council (Ngāi Tahu Representation) Act 2022 empowers Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu to appoint up to two members of the Environment Canterbury Council with full decision-making powers. These members are unelected appointees. This sets an undemocratic precedent for the future.

Paul Paynter: The Te Tiriti o Waitangi journey

I didn’t vote for David Seymour.

Jacinda Ardern may be right in that he’s “an arrogant prick”, but at least he has courage. Seymour’s End of Life Choice Act was a remarkable achievement. It’s the sort of issue that upsets a lot of people, me included. To confront difficult issues requires you to put your political capital on the line.

And so it is with any discussion about the Treaty of Waitangi. Seymour has the cojones and Luxon doesn’t. One of the best parts of MMP is it brings us fringe parties with fringe ideas and the courage to air them.

Geoff Parker: Crown – Maori Partnership?

Some in New Zealand’s society today believe there is a Crown / Maori Partnership.

Lets go back to the time Te Tiriti was signed by the chiefs and Governor Hobson who was acting for the Queen of England.

Geoff Parker: Sovereignty ceded

The references to sovereignty in this first archived document establishes that the Treaty was about sovereignty (not government or governance) and transfer of sovereignty was the intent of the British Government.

* Lord Normanby’s brief to William Hobson > https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Mac01Comp-t1-g1-t5-g1-t2-g1-t6.html

These next four archived documents prove beyond doubt that the chiefs ceded full sovereignty.

Roger Childs: ‘Honour the Treaty!’ But which one?

There is only one

As readers know the so-called “Treaty in English” was recently graffitied at Te Papa. One thing I am in agreement with the protest group Te Waka Hourua on is that there is only one Treaty – Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

So why do the Waitangi Tribunal, some historians and many Maori activists claim that there is an English text of the Treaty? If there was such a thing, it would be an exact English version of the Maori text.

Bryce Edwards: Political donations, Lobbying, Labour Party recovery, the media’s performance, and National’s questionable reforms

Have political donations and lobbying from the natural health sector led to the incoming government’s decision to repeal the Therapeutic Products Act? That’s the question asked today by RNZ’s Farah Hancock, who looks at the long-running relationship between the NZ First party and industry group, the Natural Health Alliance – see: What is it about Winston Peters and the natural health products industry?

The lobby group ran election advertisements, together with the mysterious S.B. Group, calling for a vote for NZ First. Hancock points out that the party then shot up in the polls, got into power, and included a promise to repeal the Therapeutic Products Act in the new Government’s 100-day plan.

Mike Butler: Time to display Littlewood treaty?

While staff at Te Papa museum in Wellington ponder what to do with the treaty display that was defaced by protesters on Monday, I suggest that the Busby February 4 document, which is also known as the Littlewood treaty, is the perfect fit.

The protestors want a direct translation of the Maori text added to the display so that visitors could understand clearly what the Te Tiriti actually says.

After all, Te Tiriti was the text that was debated and agreed to by chiefs in 1840.

The Busby February 4 document is a perfect match - but for a single word added to in Article 3 of Te Tiriti, and, of course, the date.

Point of Order: Megan Woods’ challenge – she has plenty of advice from champions of matauranga Maori

The Government received 901 submissions in response to its green paper on the future of the country’s research, science and innovation system – and the role to be played by matauranga Maori. can play a rolebe merged with it.

But for now, the submissions are being kept confidential because several submitters have requested anonymity. Submissions and submitter information are being reviewed against privacy and confidentiality obligations.

The Minister in charge of this reshaping of our science system is Dr Megan Woods, whose CV includes work for Crop & Food Research and Plant & Food Research. But she was a business manager, rather than a researcher, it seems. Her PhD is in history, obtained at the University of Canterbury with a thesis titled Integrating the nation: Gendering Maori urbanisation and integration, 1942–1969.

Whatever happened to the commas?

Roger Childs: Waitangi Day – what we need to remember

All citizens of the country regardless of their ethnic origins are first and foremost New Zealanders.

A holiday with meaning?

It was called New Zealand Day for a number of years, but as it was the date of the signing of Te Tiriti in 1840, Waitangi Day is fine. However, the Treaty was not our founding document as is often claimed. It was not until 21 May that Governor Hobson officially declared British sovereignty over the whole country.

The British had been reluctant to take on New Zealand as a colony and were happy for the Governor of New South Wales to oversee what was going on across the Tasman. However, issues of law and order, as well as race relations became more complicated and fraught during the 1820s and 1830s.