For my Ngāti Kahu ancestors, the first ones to arrive turned out to be murderous barbarians. They were strangers, often in very poor health and in need of shelter and protection until they recovered. I will note the progress made recently in this area.įor Indigenous peoples, the early visitors from Europe were not discoverers. The first step towards that goal is implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. I will also consider a solution to the current situation located in constitutional transformation that honours Te Tiriti, settles colonisation, restores the balance between Māori as mana whenua (mana - power and authority derived from the gods, whenua – land mana whenua is mana in the land) and predominantly European settlers, and allows the country to live in peace and harmony. As an example of this, I will consider how the treaty claims settlement process entrenches colonisation. The same attitude towards Māori that British immigrants were articulating in the 1840s remains in governments to this day. I will consider the history that recorded our ancestors’ experiences of the Crown’s refusal to honour the treaty and the myths new immigrants created to achieve their goal of colonisation. I will then consider the evidence handed down to my generation and provided to various commissions of inquiry and courts of the understandings our Māori ancestors reached with the English and the foundations they laid for future generations in He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiranga o Nu Tireni in 1835 and Te Tiriti o Waitangi in 1840. In order to provide an explanation for the behaviour of these visitors, I will outline the notion of ‘discovery’ that the British and other Europeans have relied on since the fifteenth century to take over the territories of other people. In this article, I will draw on the traditions of my hapū (grouping of extended families) to consider first, my ancestors’ experiences of early European visitors. Governments on the other hand use the settlements to entrench colonisation. Claimants enter negotiations with governments to honour and uphold Te Tiriti and to achieve justice, peace and harmony. There are thousands of claims still to be addressed. Over the past 25 years, governments have used legislation to extinguish many hundreds of those claims. Māori have taken more than 2800 claims against the Crown. In 1975, the government set up the Waitangi Tribunal to inquire into breaches of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. They relied instead on myths they created to justify illegitimately dispossessing Māori and usurping our power, often brutally and violently, forcing us into poverty, deprivation, marginalisation and powerlessness that present day statistics reflect (Mutu 2017, p. Early British immigrants, whom the treaty promised to control, refused to honour it. It seriously violates Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the 1840 treaty between Māori and the British Crown. Māori leaders in New Zealand have always fought to end British colonisation. The first step towards that goal involves implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
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Research on constitutional transformation has identified a possible solution.
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Research undertaken has shown that Māori loathe this process and do not accept that settlements are full and final. Governments then instigated the ‘treaty claims settlement’ process to extinguish all Māori claims, remove Māori rights and entrench colonisation. They established the Waitangi Tribunal in 1975 to inquire into breaches of the treaty, not realising that it would dismantle the myths and look beneath the amnesia. They fabricated myths to justify their criminal activities, set up an illegitimate parliament with unfettered powers, passed laws legalising their crimes and then covered it up with amnesia.
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Relying on the Doctrine of Discovery, they illegitimately usurped our power and dispossessed us, leaving us in a state of poverty, deprivation and marginalisation. Early European visitors subjected our ancestors to numerous atrocities. The aim is to restore the balance between Māori and the Crown guaranteed in the treaty that Māori and the British Crown agreed to in 1840 so that we can live in peace and harmony.
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Māori leaders in New Zealand continue the battle to end British colonisation.