SIXTH ANNUAL NATIONAL TREATIES 1-11 GATHERING 2010
LEGACY OF OUR SOVEREIGN CHIEFS
Conexus Centre of the Arts
Regina, Saskatchewan
October 12-15, 2010

TREATY OBSERVANCE, RECOGNITION AND ENFORCEMENT

Hone Harawira
Maori Party Member of Parliament for Te Tai Tokerau

Kia ora koutou katoa

My name is Hone Pani Tamati Waka Nene Harawira, and I am a direct descendant of one of the signatories to the Treaty of Waitangi signed in 1840, the only treaty ever signed between Maori and the British Crown.

I have always been, and will always be a Maori rights activist, even though I am currently a Member of Parliament in the New Zealand House of Representatives, where I represent one of the 7 seats reserved for Maori - the Tai Tokerau seat, which covers the area of my tribal homelands, in the northern part of the North Island.

I am also a member of the Maori Party, a political movement launched off the back of a march of more than 40,000 people that I led from the northern part of our country, to our nation’s capital in 2004.

The Maori Party is our nation’s first ever indigenous party to establish a presence in our parliament. We currently hold 5 of the 7 Maori seats. It is our intention to win the other 2 seats in 2011.

Four years ago, I attended the United Nations 2nd Treaty Seminar held in Hobbema, Treaty 6 Territory.

The changes that have happened since that time are significant for indigenous people throughout the world, including some major changes back home in Aotearoa which I would like to talk about here because they impact on international developments as well.

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In 2005, in our first shot at the national elections, the Maori Party became the first ever indigenous party in our country’s history to enter parliament.

In 2010, following a coalition agreement with the National Party, we became the first ever indigenous party in our country’s history to become a part of government.

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In 2006, I said at Hobbema that “Maori believe strongly in the need for constitutional change, and the need to place the Treaty of Waitangi at the centre of those constitutional arrangements, but while a Treaty-based constitution has long been an aspiration of Maori, the Crown has steadfastly refused to consider it as an option”.

In 2010, as part of our coalition agreement with the National government, the Maori Party will lead a constitutional review with a view to ensuring the Treaty of Waitangi is at the centre of that discussion, and hopefully becomes a central plank in a Treaty-based constitution.

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In 2006, I talked at Hobbema about “the unequivocal opposition of the New Zealand Government to the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People, leaving Aotearoa’s international reputation in tatters”.

In 2007, 143 countries voted in support of the Declaration, but not Canada, America, Australia, or Aotearoa. In fact, the New Zealand government said at the time that the Declaration was “fundamentally incompatible with New Zealand’s constitutional and legal arrangements, the Treaty of Waitangi and the principle of governing for the good of all our citizens”.

In 2010, I can report that after more than 25 years of blood, sweat, tears, and many, many kilometres travelled by many indigenous warriors - including Chief Ed Burnstick (First Nations), Bill Wahpepah (Native American), Kawaipuna Prejean (Hawaii), and Syd Jackson (Maori) – and following strong representation from the Maori Party, on 20 April 2010 at the United Nations in New York, the Maori Party’s co-leader Dr Pita Sharples declared the support of the New Zealand Government for the United Nation’s Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

So today’s Treaty Gathering is an important step for us all as we share in the steps that we all take to advance the status of Treaties and their impact on indigenous peoples, and indeed the steps that we take to advance the status of indigenous peoples themselves.

Today’s Treaty Gathering is also important so that we can measure our progress, so that we can plan our next steps, and do so with the knowledge that we are part of a world family of indigenous peoples, a global community committed to a common goal of re-establishing those principles which have guided our peoples for thousands of years and which provide the only basis for a safe future for the rest of the world.

We come together to preserve, to develop and to transmit to future generations our continued existence as indigenous peoples; to celebrate and to reaffirm our ancestral territories, our social institutions, our legal systems, and our collective decision-making processes; to reclaim and reassert our self-determination; and to measure our progress in terms of how our treaties are being observed today.

THE TREATY

In terms of how our treaty stands in 2010, I start with a pocket history.

On February 6 1840, a Treaty was signed at Waitangi, in the Bay of Islands in Aotearoa between the British Crown and Maori chiefs, whereby tribes would accept Crown protection of their sovereignty in return for allowing the Crown to govern - primarily because of the lawlessness of white settlers.

By 1842, Maori were already opposing Crown breaches of the Treaty; the Crown response was to go to war against any Maori fighting to hold onto their lands.

In 1884, King Tawhiao led a deputation to England to petition Queen Victoria to establish an independent inquiry into land confiscations, and to uphold and honour the Treaty of Waitangi.’

In 1924, another delegation led by Tahupotiki Wiremu Ratana, travelled to London to petition King George, and then to the League of Nations in Geneva - to protest against the breaking of the Treaty of Waitangi.

In 1970, Nga Tamatoa began annual marches to Waitangi to protest continued Crown refusal to honour the Treaty of Waitangi.

In 1975, the Waitangi Tribunal was established to investigate Crown breaches of the Treaty.

By 2000, numerous Treaty settlements had been reached, although none has been for more than 3% of the value of the claim.

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The pace of settlements has increased greatly since then, and tribal developments leveraged off the back of some of those settlements have seen Maori become a solid presence in the New Zealand economy.

Against that however, has been a growing concern that that development has tended to mirror normal corporate behaviour which pays scant respect to the greater needs of a people still suffering the massive deprivation that comes from generations of colonial oppression.

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There has also been considerable work done over recent years to advance the status of treaties at an international level. I leave that presentation to Andrea Carmen, Ron Lameman and Wes George.

Suffice to say however, that it has been agreed that the 3rd United Nations Treaty Seminar will be held in Aotearoa, next year.

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But some lessons that we have learned from our own Treaty history are:

Always assert your Treaty rights, regardless of who may be in power;
Always assert the right of partnership that is the basis of every Treaty – no treaty exists that does not have two partners – insist on your right to be at the table in all matters that affect you;
Never allow the other partner to force you to accept any settlement that is inconsistent with what your ancestors would have expected;
Push for a full, public inquiry into the way in which your Treaties have been handled;
Work with other indigenous nations to enhance the status of all treaties, and to establish an independent, international oversight of all treaty arrangements.

THE DECLARATION

As far as the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is concerned, I was pleasantly surprised but not overwhelmed, by the NZ government’s announcement of support for the Declaration at the opening session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York in April.

On a positive note, Justice Taihakurei Eddie Durie said that:

“The Declaration fills out how the Principles of the Treaty can be applied, and will become the primary framework for discussing issues between Maori and the Crown … whereas the Treaty has three commandments, the Declaration has 46 articles and hence provides a more detailed outline of indigenous rights.”

But I also note that on the very same day that New Zealand’s support for the Declaration was being announced in New York, at home our Prime Minister was saying this to Parliament:

“It is important to understand that the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People is just that - it is a declaration. It is not a treaty, it is not a covenant, and one does not actually sign up to it. It is an expression of aspiration; it will have no impact on New Zealand law and no impact on the constitutional framework”.

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If we, as indigenous people, are to maximise the value we can get from the Declaration, then it will be in how we as indigenous people recognise it, how we make it meaningful in our communities, how we use it to support our tribal and treaty rights, and how we include it in our negotiation framework with our respective governments.

Many good people have put in some excellent work to bring the Declaration to where it is today. It is not the defining statement of Indigenous Rights, but it is a powerful guide to the rights that we all share, and it is recognition of what our ancestors would have wanted for us, when they first entered into treaty relationships over the past few hundred years.

It was not meant to be left on a shelf. It was meant to be acted on

As part of my final remarks, I would like to bring us back home here to the First Nations, and a conversation that Sheryl Lightfoot of the University of British Columbia had with our own Ngati Kahungunu lawyer, Moana Jackson. In that conversation Moana said,

“One of the great myths in this country is that colonisation has ended but no one has yet been able to tell me when it ended. And if colonisation is the systematic dispossession and the denial of rights and equality of indigenous peoples, then it definitely has not ended”.

In 2010, those comments are as relevant to Aotearoa as they are to Canada. We share a common history, but we also share a common goal, and now we also share a common bond.

I wish you well with the promotion of your treaties as the bases for a shared power relationship between your nations and the government of Canada, and I offer you any assistance that you think we can offer from our small little corner of the Pacific.

ENDS

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