{"id":592,"date":"2024-08-23T03:26:45","date_gmt":"2024-08-23T03:26:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hehoaka.com\/?p=592"},"modified":"2024-08-23T03:39:27","modified_gmt":"2024-08-23T03:39:27","slug":"he-whakaputanga-te-tiriti-and-maori-never-ceded-sovereignty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hehoaka.com\/?p=592","title":{"rendered":"He Whakaputanga, Te Tiriti and M\u0101ori never ceded sovereignty"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An update of a (more than 13 years old) post giving a really brief overview of my understanding of He Whakaputanga and Te Tiriti, plus new bonus content!! (A wee mention of Luxon\u2019s ignorance and Seymour\u2019s raweke)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He Whakaputanga and Te Tiriti, are very closely related\u2014Ani Mikaere describes He Whakaputanga as the key to understanding Te Tiriti. The figure below shows this whakapapa: tikanga M\u0101ori reflects a M\u0101ori understanding of reality.*<\/strong> The arrival and behaviour of Europeans created a new set of risks for tangata whenua, and hap\u016b from the north looked for a solution from tikanga M\u0101ori\u2014the only place they would look. That solution was He Whakaputanga (which you can read at nzhistory<\/a>). He Whakaputanga affirms a M\u0101ori way of organising: hap\u016b retain their rangatiratanga, but will gather as te Whakaminenga to discuss issues affecting all of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Whakapapa of Te Tiriti and the principles of the Treaty<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Te Tiriti was written 5 years later, and retains two key terms of He Whakaputanga\u2014rangatiratanga (meaning ultimate authority and independence) and k\u0101wanatanga (meaning delegated authority). It is a very simple document. Te Tiriti reaffirms He Whakaputanga\u2014 rangatiratanga remains with hap\u016b, but some authority is delegated to the Crown in order that they can manage their own people. As Moana Jackson points out, this is consistent with M\u0101ori traditions of treaty making (for example, in his chapter of Imagining Decolonisation, reprinted here<\/a>). The majority of hap\u016b did not sign Te Tiriti\u2014500+ rangatira signed on behalf of their hap\u016b, 30+ signed \u2018The Treaty of Waitangi\u2019 because a copy of Te Tiriti was not available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Very few New Zealanders know much about Te Tiriti beyond its existence (even fewer know anything about He Whakaputanga); most know more about The Treaty. I went to school in Northland, the birthplace of both He Whakaputanga and Te Tiriti, and I didn\u2019t learn about either. I only learned about The Treaty of Waitangi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The document written in English, called the Treaty of Waitangi (which Margaret Mutu calls<\/a> \u2018a draft\u2019 and \u2018irrelevant\u2019), comes from a completely different understanding of the world, a colonising understanding. Again it is a simple document. According to The Treaty, hap\u016b ceded sovereignty to the Crown, but retain limited property rights. This is in the tradition of European colonising laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It should be clear that Te Tiriti and the English-language \u2018Treaty of Waitangi\u2019 are pretty much diametrically opposing on the point of political or decision making authority. According to one, hap\u016b have ultimate political power under which the Crown has limited authority; according to the other the Crown has ultimate political power under which M\u0101ori have property rights. We are taught that they are two versions of the same document, but clearly they are not. They are based on entirely different understandings of the world and entirely different legal systems. Only one of them was discussed and agreed to at Waitangi in 1840\u2014and it\u2019s not the one where M\u0101ori cede sovereignty to the Crown (sorry about that Luxon).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The principles of the Treaty are a much later invention, which are supposed to provide a bridge between the two documents. These principles have not been developed with M\u0101ori representation\u2014they have been developed entirely by the Crown (M\u0101ori in Crown roles in government, the courts or the Waitangi Tribunal have had input, but they are clearly not M\u0101ori representative roles). The principles affirm the Crown\u2019s understanding of the Treaty and do nothing to challenge their assumption of Crown sovereignty. As my figure above shows, the principles of the Treaty are therefore born from the Treaty of Waitangi, which in turn was born from colonising law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No hap\u016b or Iwi signed the principles of The Treaty, but all school children learn about them. The new New Zealand history curriculum at least means now children might also learn about He Whakaputanga and Te Tiriti.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recommended Reading<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To learn more about He Whakaputanga, Te Tiriti, the principles of the treaty, or (gods forbid) the Treaty Principles Bill, here\u2019s where I recommend you start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Very Long<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Waitangi Tribunal\u2019s He Whakaputanga me te Tiriti | The Declaration and the Treaty The Report on Stage 1 of the Te Paparahi o te Raki Inquiry<\/a> (link will take you to full pdf)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s very long, 500 odd pages. If you don\u2019t want to read it all, the key chapters are 8 Past perspectives on Te Tiriti and The Treaty (pp 407-446) and 10 Our Conclusions (pp 497-532).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much Shorter<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter 6 \u201cTe Tiriti and the Treaty: seeking to reconcile the irreconcilable in the name of truth\u201d in Ani Mikaere\u2019s book Colonising Myths \u2013 M\u0101ori Realities: He Rukuruku Whakaaro (if you haven\u2019t read the book, it\u2019s great. And sadly everything in it continues to be very relevant).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Very Short<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Margaret Mutu on Te Tiriti and the Treaty Principles Bill<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Primer <\/a>from Carwyn Jones (link will take you to pdf)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* Note:<\/strong> people like Seymour try to muddy the waters on these sorts of phrases\u2014\u2018based on M\u0101ori thinking\u2019, \u00a0\u2018M\u0101ori understandings\u2019, etc. They say things like \u2018M\u0101ori don\u2019t all think the same, there is no single M\u0101ori understanding of reality\u2019. That\u2019s true, and it\u2019s also not what those phrases mean. They mean thinking or understandings (or whatever) developed from m\u0101tauranga M\u0101ori. People like Seymour don’t like to admit that M\u0101ori have developed our own philosophies and knowledge systems, so they pretend to misunderstand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FWIW, the ‘misunderstanding’ is based on grammar. I am confident Seymour understands the difference between \u2018M\u0101ori think such and such\u2019 (where M\u0101ori is a noun meaning M\u0101ori people) and \u2018M\u0101ori thinking\u2019 (where M\u0101ori is an adjective meaning related to M\u0101ori). A couple of analogous examples that show the difference are \u2018Westerners think\u2019 versus \u2018western thinking\u2019 or \u2018Christians think\u2019 versus \u2018Christian thinking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n



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An update of a (more than 13 years old) post giving a really brief overview of my understanding of He Whakaputanga and Te Tiriti, plus new bonus… Read more “He Whakaputanga, Te Tiriti and M\u0101ori never ceded sovereignty”<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nHe Whakaputanga, Te Tiriti and M\u0101ori never ceded sovereignty - He H\u014daka<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hehoaka.com\/?p=592\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"He Whakaputanga, Te Tiriti and M\u0101ori never ceded sovereignty - 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Moana is most known for his critiques of colonisation, showing how damaging colonising thinking and actions are. He helped a lot of us to see more clearly how it works, and I will forever be grateful for that. When\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":588,"url":"https:\/\/hehoaka.com\/?p=588","url_meta":{"origin":592,"position":1},"title":"Section 7AA and tamariki M\u0101ori","date":"August 8, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019ve recently written about the proposed repeal of Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. This is a summary based on a piece for e-tangata ('Not one more child') and a submission from the New Zealand Family Violence Clearinghouse. 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