Speech: Sharples - Kingitanga Day, Waikato University
te-pati-maori
Thu Apr 14 2011 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Speech: Sharples - Kingitanga Day, Waikato University
Thursday, 14 April 2011, 8:34 pm
Speech: The Maori Party
Whaia te rangatiratanga, ake, ake, ake!
Notes for speech to Kingitanga Day, Wiakato University, 14 April 2011
Dr Pita R Sharples, Co-leader of the Maori Party
E nga mana o Waikato Taniwha Rau – tena koutou.
E nga iwi o Waikato, nga whakaruruhau mo tenei hui, karanga mai, karanga mai.
E nga kaiwhakahaere o tenei ra nui, ka nui te mihi atu.
Koutou katoa kua huihui mai nei i tenei ra, tena koutou katoa.
We are here today to celebrate the Kingitanga, and to reflect on what has made this historic institution such a lasting success.
The Kingitanga was born out of turmoil, when iwi and Maori felt their survival as a distinct culture and identity was in doubt.
Traditional kaupapa and tikanga had been systematically undermined across the land, by the many processes of colonisation.
In economics, our people had tried to share in the benefits of new society by participating in the cash economy. In the process, their traditional landscapes were cleared for timber, farming and cropping, with massive impacts on native flora and fauna and natural ecosystems; they moved their kainga from healthy sites to flax swamps, where disease took hold; and people became addicted to tobacco and alcohol.
Politically and legally, the adversarial tactics of divide and rule were imposed by converting customary ownership of land to individual freehold title, pitting owner against owner, and individual against whanau and hapu, in disastrous land court cases.
Advertisement - scroll to continue reading
Land was the basis of the economy, of livelihood, of survival, of collective self-sufficiency and self-reliance.
The whenua was also a source of mana, and whakapapa relationships between communities and the natural world. So land was also the basis of collective identity and culture, and the social structures of hapu and iwi.
The Kingitanga was a movement to resist the onslaught of alien politics, law and economics. It aimed to uphold rangatiratanga by establishing an institution that could halt the divide and rule policy of the Crown, and unite iwi in opposing the sale of land.
However, the very act of protecting iwi interests, through peaceful and legal means, was taken as a declaration of war against the Crown. Battles were fought and blood was shed.
The immediate aftermath of war, in Taranaki, the Bay of Plenty and Gisborne as well as in the Waikato region, was land confiscation. The consequences were devastating.
However, I am not here to tell you of your own history. Many of you here today are far better-qualified than I am to talk about the history of war and confiscation.
I want to look at the legacy, and how that drives our life and our choices today.
The historic battle for control of land, waged between kawanatanga and rangatiratanga, was not just over WHO would own the land, but HOW they would own it.
At the same time as land was seized by the Crown, the Native Land Court was established to carry on the colonisation project, so that even when Maori owned land, they could not do so in accordance with their own tikanga.
Henry Sewell, the Attorney-General who resigned his post in 1863 in protest against the confiscation policy, said this process of alienating Maori land through the Native Land Court was designed to:
“destroy if possible, the principle of communism which ran through the whole of their institutions, upon which their social system was based, and which stood as a barrier in the way of all attempts to amalgamate the Native race into our own social and political system.”
And I would argue that the Kingitanga was designed to resist exactly these processes – and to uphold the principle of collective identity and community control, to maintain traditional institutions and social systems, so the people could negotiate their engagement with the colonial social and political system on their own terms.
This has been the historic struggle of Maori ever since. To assert our own culture and values in the way we live, to maintain our traditions and identity, and control over our own destiny, and to limit further losses.
But this has not been simply a conservative, defensive strategy. Our people have always engaged boldly with the wider world, participated fully, and taken up new ideas, and knowledge and technology that our culture can harness for the benefit of our people.
From the earliest days of contact with Pakeha, Maori have travelled overseas, established successful businesses, participated in civic life and formal ceremonies, played sport at the top levels, graduated from universities, entered Parliament to represent their people, defended their rights in courts, petitioned the kings and queens of England and entertained royalty in Aotearoa, taken leadership roles in the church, and fought for king and country.
And we have done so as Maori citizens of Aotearoa, proud to honour our ancestors and share our heritage.
One would have to say our struggle for survival as a distinct culture and identity has been successful, in that we are still here. But our quest for rangatiratanga has achieved more mixed results.
Judging by virtually every social indicator, we are still an oppressed people.
But there have been significant acievements in recent decades:
- Revitalisation of te reo Maori – (expand)
Treaty claims, too, have helped to slow, and even reverse, the fragmentation of traditional groupings, and rekindle iwi members’ interest in tribal history and heritage.
In order to pursue a claim, Maori have had to consider who they are and where they have come from, and to engage once again with the Crown to settle outstanding issues from our history.
The claims are not simply about getting money from the Crown, either as recompense for past wrongs, or even to secure an economic base for future development.
The most valuable result from the claims process has been the emergence of new leadership structures, with fresh mandates from traditional communities. As a bonus, the ability of emergent iwi organisations to provide for their communities is reinforced when they secure assets from Treaty settlements.
But none of these advances has secured our future. We remain vulnerable, and if there was one thing that brought that home, it was the fiasco over the FSSB.
The government showed breathtaking disregard for our human and civil rights, not to mention our status as tangata whenua with our own tikanga, when it tried to solve its own legal problem by abolishing our customary rights and denying us the right of recourse to the courts.
But the response from Maori was equally incredible. The level of unity we saw then has probably never been equalled – not even during the land wars, when lives were at stake.
That unity gave rise to a new national political movement – the Maori Party – with a mandate to avenge the insult, and put right that wrong.
The Maori Party became a significant voice for Maori at the first election it contested. Although it was born out of the FSSB controversy, our four MPs challenged common public perceptions by speaking on every Bill before the Parliament.
We did that to demonstrate that every issue is a Maori issue, that Maori have distinctive viewpoints, and Maori voices must be heard in every arena.
We also tried to influence the tikanga of Parliament by the way we behaved towards other parties and other MPs, and the way we addressed the issues rather than abusing the person.
We promoted a cross-party voluntary code of conduct, which other smaller parties signed as well, but the jury is still out on the long-term results.
Our efforts to uphold the integrity and dignity of our people may have laid the foundations for what happened after the next election, when we were invited to join the government, under a Relationship and Confidence and Supply agreement with the National Party.
We were not invited to join the government because the National Party needed our numbers. National and ACT together had a majority. What we did give National was some insurance against the possibility of ACT holding the government to ransom.
But National would not have contemplated this arrangement if they did not think the Maori Party would make a reasonable and responsible partner in Parliament, who could work with them in good faith, despite our obvious differences.
For our own part, we make no bones about the fact that we think it is better to be in government making changes, than in opposition throwing stones.
Despite the limited leverage our small numbers gives us, we have achieved a number of major goals that we identified before we entered into that agreement.
(List – whanau ora, whare oranga ake, constitutional review, tobacco taxes etc etc)
We have achieved our goals partly through bargaining, and in any bargain, there is a price to pay. For us, that has been our guarantee of support for issues of confidence (loyalty to the current government) and supply (budget measures to pay for the government’s policy programme).
So we have been criticised for voting in support of a rise in GST which we publicly opposed, but that is the price we pay for the gains we have achieved. (You could also argue that walking away from the agreement, to vote against the GST rise, would have been pointless, because National and ACT would have passed it anyway.)
As well as bargaining, we have also had influence behind the scenes, in ways that are less easily seen. As part of our agreement, Tariana and I became Ministers in the government, with access to Cabinet for discussions of importance to us. As Co-leaders of a support party, we also have regular meetings with the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, and guaranteed access to other Ministers on specific issues.
Through these channels, we have had a big influence on Maori participation in the Rugby World Cup, with Te Waka Maori and MTS broadcasts in particular; Maori input to the SuperCity, (etc)
We have also been able to avert or modify some of our colleagues policies that could have affected our people significantly (ETS, Treaty clauses in the RMA, national standards in kaupapa Maori schools etc...)
Perhaps most importantly for the long term, we have helped to achieve greater access for Maori to the top decision-making tables, where iwi and hapu can make their own cases directly to Ministers and the Prime Minister.
This restoration of a direct working relationship between Crown and Tangata Whenua is something I’ll come back to a little later.
The Maori Party achieved a major milestone last month, with the passing of the MACA (TTM) Bill into law.
That Bill, and our relationship with National, has been controversial in recent weeks. We say we have delivered what we promised – abolition of Crown title, restoration of access to the Courts and a chance to seek recognition of customary rights.
Others say we have not fulfilled Maori aspirations. We would agree with that. I think there is no question that we would all like to see mana whenua fully recognised in the law of the land.
The difference is over tactics – is it better to take one step forward with this law, knowing that tangata whenua still have a long way to go to get recognition of customary rights? Or should we say: ‘This is not good enough, stick your offer, we’ll be back some time in the future’.
The Maori Party has good reasons to think that we will not be able to revisit this issue for a generation at least. And meanwhile, the passing of time will consolidate Crown ownership of the takutai moana.
We also believe that once cases are taken to court, people will see more clearly how the MACA Bill is better than the FSSB Act – it has reopened a door that was slammed shut in 2004.
I mentioned earlier that iwi have been meeting face-to-face with the Prime Minister and his Cabinet Ministers on this issue, and other matters of great importance to our people - ownership and management of fresh water, the Emissions Trading Scheme, whanau ora and others.
One result of the incredible show of strength by iwi over the takutai moana, has been a new level of respect in government for the role and importance of tangata whenua. Tainui leaders are right up there!
Let’s not forget that, on this issue, Maori people have achieved, through public and political pressure (including the establishment of the Maori Party), a major U-turn by the government, in the face of strident campaigns by lobby groups like the Coastal Coalition.
The creation of an authentic, independent Maori voice to carry on the political arguments in Parliament has been vital to iwi success. We have achieved this by working together.
And as whanau ora and the constitutional review roll out, bringing long-term benefits to our people, the relationship with the National Party, and the value of the Maori Parrty being in government, will come to be seen in a new light.
But make no mistake – the Maori Party is part of the kawanatanga. We can represent the views of Maori in Parliament, but we cannot act on behalf of iwi on matters of mana and tikanga.
In relation to the takutai moana, it is not for us to say what customary rights are. Our role is to facilitate direct relationships between iwi and the Crown, and to support iwi to express their rangatiratanga. And we carry out our role most effectively when iwi support us!
In reality, the Maori Party has been able to achieve what no other Maori party in Parliament has achieved before. And because of the unique circumstances that gave birth to the Maori Party, that may never be repeated, I believe we will never have this chance again.
That is why I believe it is so important for Maori to understand the bigger picture. We may have differences of opinion on particular issues, and there may be times when we do not uunderstand each other’s position.
As a political party, we operate in a totally Pakeha environment, subject to the rules and conventions of a political culture that comes from Westminster. So, for example, we support a rise in GST, not because we have betrayed our constitutents or lost sight of the real issues, but because we see the greater good that we can achieve by staying, for now, in a relationship with the National Party.
So we, as iwi, Maori and the Maori Party, must act together and support each other on the basis of trust and good faith. Not blind faith! We want you to keep questioning and challenging us, to keep us honest.
But I say to you, above and beyond the particular issues, it is very important to support having an authentic and independent voice for Maori in Parliament.
This is not the politician talking, I speak as a Maori and commmunity advocate who has fought all my adult life for kaupapa Maori. I see our people approaching the far horizon that our tipuna talked about, standing at the threshhold of a new world that our mokopuna will inherit.
So while it is vital to hold fast to the cultural institutions and structures of our rangatiratanga – our land, our language, our whanau and hapu, our tikanga tuku iho – it is also important to move forward into new territory, using vehicles like the Maori Party that we have built for the purpose.
Just as the Kingitanga was designed by Maori to address the critical issues of the time, I believe the Maori Party has an historic role in the future development of our people.
Ma whero, ma pango e oti ai te mahi.
Kia ora,
Dr Pita R Sharples.
Minister of Maori Affairs,
Co-leader of the Maori Party
MP for Tamaki Makaurau.
Advertisement - scroll to continue reading
a.supporter:hover {background:#EC4438!important;} @media screen and (max-width: 480px) { #byline-block div.byline-block {padding-right:16px;}}
Using Scoop for work?
Scoop is free for personal use, but you’ll need a licence for work use. This is part of our Ethical Paywall and how we fund Scoop. Join today with plans starting from less than $3 per week, plus gain access to exclusive Pro features.
Join Pro Individual Find out more
Find more from The Maori Party on InfoPages.