Te Tiriti O Waitangi

MASARYK UNIVERSITY IN BRNO Facultyof Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Te Tiriti o Waitangi Treaty of Waitangi – New Zealand’s founding document Baccalaureate Thesis Supervisor: PhDr. Jitka Vlčková, Ph.D. Pavla Kramářová Brno 2006 Ideclare thatIhaveworkedonthis thesisindependently, usingonlythesources listedinthe bibliography. 2 Iwouldlike tothankmysupervisorPhDr.Jitka Vlčková,Ph.D.forherkindandvaluableadvice. 3 Contents 1.Introduction…………………………………………………………………………….5 2.TheearlyMāori-Pākehācontact……………………………………………………….7 3.Theneedforintervention………………………………………………………………9 4.JamesBusbyandthe DeclarationofIndependence…………………………………..10 5.OnthewaytotheTreaty……………………………………………………………...12 6.ThedraftingandsigningoftheTreaty………………………………………………..15 7.ThecontentsoftheTreatyandthe differences betweenthe texts…………………… 18 •TeKāwanatanga •TeRangatiratanga 8.Theaftermath………………………………………………………………………… 25 9.Discontentandwars…………………………………………………………………..28 10.Fromneglect torecognition…………………………………………………………..30 11.The principlesoftheTreaty…………………………………………………………..33 12.The preservationofdocumentsandWaitangi Day…………………………………...35 13.Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………37 Bibliography...…………………………………………………………………………….39 AppendixA.TheTreatysheet…………………………………………………….........43 AppendixB.TheMāoritext.……………………………………………………...........44 AppendixC.TheEnglishtext…………………………………………………………..45 AppendixD.AModernEnglishtranslationoftheMāoritext………………………….47 4 1.Introduction The Treaty of Waitangi, dubbedMagna Carta of the aborigines of New Zealand,is an agreement concludedbetweenrepresentatives of the British Crownandchiefs of the Māori iwi and hapū ; Māoritribes andsubtribes.The Treatybears the name of the place inthe Bayof Islands,Waitangi,which means weepingor noisywaters (“The Colonisation”),where it was first signedon6February1840.This covenant was a necessaryconsequence andunravelling of the uncontrolled coexistence of the tangata whenua , people of the land (Shaw 96), and whitesettlersor Pākehā1,astheMāoriusedtocalltheirnewneighbours. The Treaty of Waitangi, in Māori Te Tiriti o Waitangi , represents an important document in New Zealandhistoryandis generallyconsideredtobe its foundingdocument.It defineda new relationship betweenthe Māori andthe British Crownthat haddevelopedsince the endof the 18 th century.Inthis document the Māori gave the Crownthe rights andpowers togoverntheir landand tosettle it withBritishcitizens.Inreturn,the Māori were confirmed andguaranteedpossessionof their lands andtheywere accordedthe Queen’s protectionand the rights of British subjects. Since the signing the Treaty and its contents caused a lot of tension between the two races and was a source of prolonged controversy and misunderstanding. This thesis deals not only with the Treaty itself but also with the situation that preceded andthat followedthe creationof the document.Inthe introductorychapter I set out to picture the arrival of the first explorers and a subsequent flow of settlers who made a preliminarycontact with the native people andwhat this contact looked like.This situational frame is further developed in chapter “The need for intervention” to show which way the initial cohabitation progressed till it finished up in the advent of James Busby and the Declaration of Independence.The era preceding“the treaty’s comingonthe scene” is closed 1 Pākehā is a term used to designate a white person, a New Zealander of Anglo/European origin, or a Non-Māori or foreigner (“Pākehā”). 5 with a description of the immediate causes and motivations that led to the drawing and signing of the Treaty. Then I proceed to the Treaty itself. I concentrate on the process of forgingandacceptingtheTreatytextandIdevoteonechaptertoadetailedanalysisofthetext in which I comment on the contents, its structure, meaning and interpretation. This is followed by the depiction of its consequences and influence on Māori-Pākehā relationship. Onechapter dealswiththevariousformsofMāoridiscontentandresistanceandthefollowing one withthe process from the continuous neglect toa final treaty’s recognition.What role the Treaty plays today is also of my interest, to a limited extent, in reference to the Treaty Principles. The story of the documents preservation and of Waitangi Day concludes this bachelor thesis.Inappendixes youcanfindthe picture of the Treatyandlookinthe texts of both versions, Māori and English, together with Professor Sir Hugh Kawharu’s modern EnglishtranslationoftheMāori text providedwithfootnotes. 6 2.TheearlyMāori-Pākehācontact The first European to catch sight of Aotearoa 2, or Tiritiri o te Moana3, to use two ancient Māori names for New Zealand,was in1642a DutchEast India Companyexplorer Abel Janszoon Tasman(Sinclair,Oxford 21).Tasmanjust sailedup the west coast andnamed the landStatenIslandwhichwas afterwards renamedNew Zealand,after the province of the same name inhis country(Clyde 6).It was onlysome thirtyyears later,after CaptainJames Cook’s voyage tothe Islands in176970,that the white people came toinhabit New Zealand. Shaw states in his book (11) that Cook and his crew were the first Europeans seen by the MāorioftheBayofIslands.Theymadeanumberoffriendlycontactswithnativesandhaving concludedthe sail aroundthe coasts of boththe NorthandSouthIslands,Cookclaimedthe land for the British monarchy in the name of King George III and then continued on to Australia (Turner et al. 15). As Sinclair writes it was a routine procedure at that time and Britain neither confirmed nor pursued its claims immediately, but Cook’s visit, Sinclair maintains, raised the possibility for further British intrusion and ultimately dominance (Oxford 21). Marion du Fresne, a Frenchman who visited the Bay in 1772 and was killed there by a local tribe,a result of a series of misunderstandings,claimedthe countryfor his sovereignas well but neither his government tookanyimmediate interest inthe land(Shaw 18). New Zealand’s first settlers were sealers, whalers and traders, temporary European settlers whocame at the endof the 18 th century (Turner et al.1516).Duringthe early19 th centuryEuropeansettlers were arrivingingreater numbers andtheir increasingpresence led 2 Aotearoa is the most widely known and accepted Māori name for New Zealand, most often translated as “The land of the long white cloud”. It is a compound of Ao =cloud, tea =white and roa =long (“Aotearoa”). 3 Tiritiri o te Moana means The Gift of the Sea. According to the Māori traditions Maui, a supernatural being and an excellent fisherman, caught a massive fish and pulled it up which today forms the North Island of New Zealand (Sinclair, A History 13). 7 to the introduction of different livestock, crops, literacy, religious ideas, weapons 4, disease andprostitution.By1805the Bayof Islands hadbecome a major whaling port where both races intermingled (Shaw 18). However, the racial relationship was not always cordial. Pākehā were welcomed if theyproveduseful for their goods andskills andfor enhancingthe mana 5 of Māori chiefs. The Māori were willing to accept Europeans on condition that the mutual contact wouldbe beneficial tothem andtheywoulddonoharm. Otherwise the Māori wouldnot hesitate todrive them out or destroytheir settlement (Sinclair,Oxford 24).There were caseswhenthe Māori insteadof beingpaidfor the goods theyhaddeliveredonthe ships were killedor flogged.Suchinsults were avengedandthe relationshipssoondeteriorated.The uneasysituationwas partlycalmeddownin1814withthe arrival of the missionaries of the Church Missionary Society whose most prominent figure was Reverend Samuel Marsden (Shaw1920). In the mid 1820’s commercial activities quickly extended to timber, flax, shore- whaling, ship-building and general trading which resulted in the creationof first groups of settlers livingpermanentlyin New Zealand (“Questions and Answers”).Theywere dependent onMāori cheap workforce and,above all,upon Māori support for their survival; theywere helpful in cleaning bush and supplying food. Although the Māori were sometimes treated badlybywhalers,a significant number of them were employedonboardsealingandwhaling ships (Shaw 18). On the other hand, Pākehā settlements, important sources of firearms, represented necessary outlets for Māori products. A kind of not only economic interdependencewasinoperationthere. Bythe 1830’s New Zealandhadabsorbedseveral boatloads of immigrants,eachwith different impact onMāori society.For example Europeanclothingwas wornandEuropean food eaten. Sinclair also mentions that hair was cut shorter, that shaking hands became an 4 It was especially muskets which aggravated the fighting and killing in inter-tribal wars (“The New Zealand Frontier”). 5 Mana means prestige, influence and power of Maori tribal authorities (Sinclair, Origins 13). 8 acceptedgreetingandthat the “how doyoudo” phrase andother English words were entering Māori vocabulary(Oxford 35).Some traders hadtakenpermanent residence onthe coast and in1834therewerealreadyonethousandpermanentEuropeansettlersintheBayofIslands. 3.Theneedforintervention The Europeanpopulationwas growingrapidlyandthe periodfrom 1820 to1840was a time of dynamic change for the Māori.In1839there were alreadyabout 2000permanent settlers, 1400 on North Island and 600 on South Island (“The New Zealand Frontier”). Kororāreka, today Russell, in the Bay of Islands district became the largest European settlement. Inthe 1830s Britishpolicytowards New Zealandwas mainlydeterminedinLondon but the colonial governors of New SouthWales inAustralia playedanimportant role.They

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