Gareth Morgan - Are We There Yet?: The Future of the Treaty of Waitangi

Acknowledgements

The prospect of investigating what is happening in New Zealand in relation to the Treaty of Waitangi was daunting. It was clear we were going to need to talk about the issues with a large number of people. Before we could ask anyone a sensible question, we needed to familiarise ourselves with New Zealands history and in particular the circumstances around the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. New Zealand is very fortunate in her historians. Scholars like Claudia Orange, Dame Anne Salmond, Professor Richard Hill, James Belich and the late Michael King have produced a wealth of accessible material which brings New Zealands past alive. We would like to make special thanks to Professor Richard Hill who provided welcome insights and feedback.

Surveys and statistics have played a significant role in this project. Two surveys we found especially valuable were the Survey of New Zealand Values, a research project led by Dr Paul Perry from Massey University, and the New Zealand General Social Survey (NZGSS) produced by Statistics New Zealand. Dr Perry, and Philip Walker and Scott Ussher from the Statistics New Zealand NZGSS team, gave generously of their time and helped us to navigate this important data. If there are any errors in the analysis we present, they are, of course, entirely our own.

Researchers like us, who operate outside the university system, would be able to investigate very little were it not for the openness and accessibility of New Zealands academic community. We were fortunate to have opportunities to talk law with legal experts; ideas about culture with anthropologists, sociologists and psychologists; constitutional issues with lawyers and political scientists; education with education researchers; community health with public health experts; Mori and Pasifika aspirations with specialists in those fields.

There are too many people to thank individually but we would like to acknowledge the huge depth of knowledge present within New Zealands universities, something which we think is not acknowledged often enough. While our views were informed by these discussions and the material we were directed towards, we accept full responsibility for the views we express here.

To everyone who has contributed to this project, thank you for helping us on this journey to understand our country better.

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First published in 2014 by The Public Interest Publishing Company Ltd (PiP).

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Contents

Introduction

It has been a long time coming, but New Zealanders and their political leaders are getting to grips with the harm done to Mori culture and Mori communities by 19th century British settlement. Other countries with a history of colonisation have been grappling with their own version of this issue too. The process of exploring the impact of colonisation, and trying to put things right, is an international one. It began in the late 1970s and continues to this day. It is not too much of a stretch to call this a process of reconciliation.

No one can have a complete understanding of the past, but it is possible to learn a great deal from history. History shows, for example, that a great deal of harm is done when ideas, values and practices from one culture within society are overlooked or actively suppressed by others. Individuals within these cultures can lose their sense of self, they can falter and lose their direction and strength. People from small cultural communities living alongside a large majority are especially vulnerable. The effects can continue across generations.

Cultural loss or suppression due to colonisation is not the only factor causing harm to indigenous communities. Although it is rarely acknowledged in New Zealand, being culturally and socially disconnected from the wider society is damaging for individuals too. International empirical evidence has shown time and again that identifying with and being connected to both ones own culture and the wider society is the best option for those from minority groups.

History also shows us that Mori culture, like many indigenous cultures, is centred on place. Having an ongoing relationship with the physical landscape is important to Mori.

With the value of hindsight then, it is no wonder that Mori communities were torn asunder by colonisation. Within one generation, Mori communities were surrounded and outnumbered by foreign settlers who successfully implanted their ideas, knowledge and political processes throughout the country. Settlers also acquired exclusive rights across much of the landscape, severing Mori connections with place. Urbanisation from the 1950s added further pressure, while falling behind in education and in the job stakes disconnected many Mori from the economy.

Colonisation began over 170 years ago in New Zealand but the effects can still be seen today in the over-representation of Mori among those with poor health and low incomes, for example, and among those in prison.

The challenge facing New Zealand in the 1970s was how to go about the reconciliation process. An obvious answer was to begin by acknowledging the Treaty of Waitangi signed in 1840. This document did, after all, kick-start the whole colonisation process. It was an agreement between British and Mori to live together in this place. Mori had always seen the Treaty as central to their relationship with the rest of New Zealand. It took time, but eventually the rest of New Zealand came to agree.

New Zealands political leaders decided in 1975 to put the Treaty at the centre of the reconciliation process. The issue then became how best to use the Treaty. The decision was made to treat the written clauses in the Treaty as benchmarks against which to judge what happened subsequent to 1840. Mori grievances thus became couched in language relating to the Treaty, and arguments were anchored around the wording used in the Treatys clauses (the three Articles). Waitangi Tribunal findings and court rulings have been invariably expressed in language relating to the Treaty.

There is a very important point about the Treatys role in the reconciliation process that is often overlooked. The Treaty is not a legal obligation imposed on either Mori or non-Mori. It is tool that is being used to help the reconciliation process. The Treaty has been successful as a tool because it has great symbolic power. The Treaty is used by the Waitangi Tribunal, the Courts, lawyers, government departments and Mori to arrive at decisions they believe will receive widespread support eventually, if not immediately. These decisions are about how resources and political power are to be distributed between Mori and non-Mori. These decisions are often subsequently translated into legislation, which is legally binding, but the Treaty itself has no legal power. In its current role the Treaty simply acknowledges there is a political relationship between Mori and non-Mori and it is the job of the Tribunal, the Courts, Parliament and government departments to work out how that relationship plays out in practice every day.