Questions and Answers Network Waitangi acknowledgements Network Waitangi wishes to acknowledge the following groups that have produced valuable resources on the Treaty of Waitangi and related issues, with apologies for those ? we have missed – Aotearoa Educators, Kia Mohio Kia Marama Trust, Koha Programme, Maori Congress, Maori Women’s Welfare League, New Zealand Maori Council, Nga Kaiwhakamarama I Nga Ture, Nga Tamatoa, Te Ahi Kaa, Te Kawariki, Waitangi Action Committee, Action For an Independent Aotearoa, arc (Aotearoa Reality Check/Anti-Racism Crew), Auckland Committee on Racism and Discrimination, Citizens Association for Racial Equality, Conference of Churches of New Zealand Programme on Racism, Double ? Take, Halt All Racist Tours, Justice and Peace Office and Bicultural Desk of the Auckland ? Catholic Diocese, Kawanatanga Network, Methodist Bicultural Desk, New Perspectives on Race, Pakeha Treaty Action, Pax Christi Aotearoa, Peace Movement Aotearoa, Playcentre Treaty Education Team, Project and Network Waitangi national and regional groups, Tamaki Treaty Workers, Te Tari Matauranga Maori (Manukau Institute of Technology), The Rowan Partnership, Theology and Racism Collective, Treaty Resource Centre, Waikato Anti-Racism Coalition, Waitangi Associates, Waitangi Consultancy ?? Group, and the YWCA. Design by Jenny Rankine, Contributors Words & Pictures, Auckland, with funding 1989 edition: National Committee, Project ?? support from the Treaty Resource Centre, Waitangi a project of the Auckland Workers’ Edu- 1993 edition: Network Waitangi cational Association (AWEA), PO Box 2008 edition: Moea Armstrong, Edwina 78-338, Auckland. Hughes, Ingrid Huygens, Joan Macdonald, Katherine Peet and Averil Williams, with ? First published 1989 special thanks to Moana Jackson and David Second revised edition 1993 Williams. Third revised edition 2008 Thanks to Heather McPherson for Published by Network Waitangi: proof-reading. ?Network Waitangi Otautahi, Christchurch Cover image: New Zealand Listener, used Community House, 141 Hereford Street, with permission. Christchurch 8001; email [email protected] Network Waitangi Whangarei, phone 09 436 ?1679, email [email protected] ?? Lead distributor: Treaty Resource Centre. Copyright © Permission is given for this publication to be copied, distributed or transmitted, providing it is properly attributed, not altered in any way, and is not sold for profit. ?? TREATY OF WAITANGI QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS TREATY OF WAITANGI Questions and Answers Network Waitangi 2008 ISBN 978-0-473-13790-8 contents Introduction 6 Q20 What was the status of the Treaty in the early years? 18 ? Questions and answers 8 Q21 How did the Crown gain control of Q1 What contact was there between Maori Aotearoa? 20 and Pakeha before 1840? 8 Q22 How can a document 168 years old Q2 What other countries were interested in have relevance for today? 20 New Zealand? 8 Q23 Is Maori concern about the failure to Q3 What was the Maori response to the honour the Treaty something new? 21 newcomers? 9 ? Q24 Why is there so much trouble about Q4 What was British policy before 1840? 9 ? the Treaty now? 22 Q5 What was the Declaration of Q25 Why can’t we throw it out and start Independence? 9 again? 22 Q6 Who controlled the country around Q26 Why can’t we just get on with living as 1840? 10 one people? 23 Q7 Why was a treaty necessary? 10 ? Q27 What about separate or parallel Q8 What is the Treaty of Waitangi? 11 development? Isn’t that apartheid? 23 Q9 Who wrote the Treaty of Waitangi? 12 Q28 Why are there separate parliamentary ?Q10 Are Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the Eng- seats for Maori? 24 lish version the same? 12 Q29 What is the “Maori Option”? 25 ?? Q11 Which Treaty is the right one? 13 Q30 What does the Treaty have to do with Q12 So what did Maori grant under the Pakeha and other Tauiwi? 25 Treaty of Waitangi? 14 Q31 Did the Treaty allow for immigration Q13 Why are there differences between Te from other countries apart from Britain? 26 Tiriti o Waitangi and the English versions? Q32 What is the place of other peoples ? 14 apart from Maori and Pakeha in relation to Q14 Why was the British intention to gain the Treaty of Waitangi? 26 sovereignty not fully explained at Treaty Q33 But haven’t other ethnic groups apart signings? 15 from Maori also suffered from racism? 26 ?Q15 How does the Treaty recognise Maori Q34 Why can’t Maori look after their as tangata whenua, and Pakeha as tangata language and culture in the same way as Tiriti? 16 other ethnic groups do? 27 Q16 What is aboriginal (native) title? 17 Q35 Does honouring the Treaty of ?Q17 What about lands that were not Waitangi mean giving Maori all their land perceived as physically occupied by Maori back? 28 ? tribes? 17 Q36 Maori are only about 15 percent of ? the population - why continue with the Q18 The Treaty is sometimes called a covenant. What does that mean? 18 Treaty? 28 Q19 Where was the Treaty signed? 18 ?? TREATY OF WAITANGI QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Q37 What does the Waitangi Tribunal do? What can I do? 41 29 Appendices 43 Q38 Haven’t Maori gained from having European technology and other material 1 He Wakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o benefits? 30 Nu Tireni/The Declaration of Independ- ence of New Zealand 43 Q39 Why do Maori say they want their land back when they don’t actually use it and just 2 Te Tiriti o Waitangi/The Treaty of let it go to waste? 30 Waitangi 44 Q40 What is being done to recognise the 2A Translation into English 45 Treaty and apply it? 31 2B Meaning in plain English 46 Q41 Why should we do anything now? 32 3 An English version written in March Q42 Doesn’t the Treaty make everything 1840 47 complicated and take up too much time? 32 4 Historical events and laws which breach Q43 Most Maori are happy with the status the Treaty of Waitangi 47 quo. Isn’t it just a few radicals stirring up 5 Further reading and websites 54 trouble? 33 Q44 What does cultural safety mean? 33 Q45 What are “the principles” of the Treaty of Waitangi? 33 Q46 What was the foreshore and seabed legislation about? 34 Q47 Isn’t it best to have the foreshore and seabed in public ownership? 35 Q48 What have United Nations human rights bodies said about the foreshore and seabed legislation? 36 Q49 What else did the UN Special Rappor- teur on Indigenous Peoples’ Rights say? 37 Waitangi, February 2006. Photo: Q50 Why are UN human rights bodies Gil Hanly. interested in the Treaty? 38 Q51 What is the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples? 38 Q52 What does Treaty-based constitutional change mean? 39 Q53 What have Tauiwi done to change the situation? 40 TREATY OF WAITANGI QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS introduction Network Waitangi Contacts for Treaty educators ? etwork Waitangi is a non-govern- WHANGAREI Nmental organisation (NGO) which Network Waitangi Whangarei, phone 09 evolved from Project Waitangi. Project 436 1679, email [email protected] Waitangi was launched in 1986 to raise AUCKLAND awareness of the Treaty among non-Maori. Tamaki Treaty Workers, PO Box 47-189, Then Governor General Sir Paul Reeves Ponsonby, Auckland; phone 09 360 8001, was its patron. email [email protected] The Network now links regional groups of The Rowan Partnership, 5 Charles Street, ?? independent, mainly non-Maori educators. Hauraki, Takapuna, North Shore 0622; Through educational workshops, study phone 09 486 0165, email groups, resource material, public seminars, [email protected] and submissions we assist Pakeha and other Treaty Resource Centre, PO Box 78- Tauiwi as tangata Tiriti (people of the Trea- 338, Grey Lynn, Tamaki Makaurau 1245; ty) to honour our Treaty responsibilities. phone/fax 09 274 4270, email Our workshops also study the effects of [email protected] ? colonisation, institutional and personal BAY OF PLENTY racism, and aim to support tangata Tiriti to Ruth Gerzon, PO Box 3017, Ohope, implement creative and equitable Treaty- Whakatane; phone 07 312 4932 or 0274 ?based relationships with tangata whenua. 308 149, email [email protected] We are committed to structural and insti- WELLINGTON tutional change based on the Maori text of Wellington Treaty Educators Network, ? the Treaty of Waitangi. We acknowledge ? PO Box 6176, Wellington 6141; phone 04 Maori as tangata whenua. We recognise 382 8129 / 0274 343 199, email tmpc@ the Treaty as the basis of our nationhood xtra.co.nz - it was and is an invitation to enter into a NELSON relationship with Maori. ? Nelson/Whakatu Treaty Network, PO The Treaty underpins Pakeha culture; it is Box 815, Nelson; email elena.meredith@ one of the things that makes that xtra.co.nz culture unique and different from British or CHRISTCHURCH European peoples in other lands. Though Network Waitangi Otautahi, Christch- ?Pakeha recognise those people as ancestors, urch Community House, 141 Hereford the Treaty adds a crucial dimension which Street, Christchurch 8001; phone 03 365 accepts and welcomes Pakeha as citizens in 5266, email [email protected] a Pacific nation. Waitangi Associates Ltd, PO Box 35-089, Christchurch; phone 03 383 3182, email ? [email protected] ? DUNEDIN ? Tauiwi Solutions, PO Box 3003, Dunedin 9045; phone 03 487 7088, email info@ tauiwisolutions.org.nz ?? TREATY OF WAITANGI QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS his book has been produced for peo- We invite readers to put aside their anxie- Tple who want to gain a basic knowl- ties and discover what the promise of the edge about the Treaty of Waitangi and its Treaty is really about. Non-Maori have implications. nothing to fear and much to gain from Over the past few decades, the Treaty has acknowledging the Maori text of the Treaty come into focus in Aotearoa/New Zealand. - that clearly shows Maori retained their Since it was signed in 1840, the Treaty has sovereignty while allowing the Crown to been seen by Maori as an essential part of exercise a form of governance.