A LEGACY

As a youngster I’d get hoha hearing my dad say things like, “Our family name is a good one. Don’t blinkin’ stuff it up.” Over the years since, I’ve come to understand that what dad was talking about was the importance of respecting our relationship to each other. What one did impacted on others in our whānau.

For Ngāti Kahu the relationship we agreed we would have with the British Crown was that between two sovereign nations as was set out clearly in the 1835 Te Hakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni (referred to in English as the Declaration of Independence) and Te Tiriti o Waitangi 1840. The British Crown recognized Te Hakaputanga and is a signatory to Te Tiriti.

More recently the United Nations has set out the minimum requirements to uphold basic human rights of indigenous peoples, including the Tangata Whenua of Aotearoa/New Zealand, in its Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Ngāti Kahu expects and will ensure that these minimum standards of human rights and mutual respect form the basis of our future relationship with the Crown. There is a great deal to be done before we can claim to have achieved those standards.

Due to the historical Crown breaches of Te Tiriti o Waitangi documented in the Waitangi Tribunal’s Muriwhenua Land Claims Report (1997) the Ngāti Kahu / Crown relationship is in very poor shape. The many ways in which the Crown has lied to, stolen from, discriminated against and oppressed Ngāti Kahu at every opportunity, are matters of public record.

Ngāti Kahu have now written “Te Hakapūmautanga o te Mana o Ngāti Kahu: the Ngāti Kahu deed of partial settlement towards extinguishment of all Crown claims to Ngāti Kahu lands.” We did this to show how and why the relationship is so bad and to outline a pathway to improving it. We have recorded for those coming after us the work undertaken by six generations of Ngāti Kahu to halt and then repair the damage wrought by Crown lawlessness in our territories since 1840. We have laid out what it will take to fully, fairly and finally settle our claims against the Crown for its numerous breaches of Te Tiriti o Waitangi since 1840, and to extinguish all Crown claims to our lands. We have written down what has actually been achieved towards that ideal. And we have recorded an agreement to commence those extinguishments through the Crown’s relinquishment of its claims to approximately 10% of our inland territories.

Over the years I have seen time and time again how the mere mention of my parents’ names has opened many doors for their uri. It’s a pretty cool legacy. On the other hand what the Crown has done to Ngāti Kahu has created a legacy of prejudice, poverty, deprivation and marginalization that are still being experienced by us up to and at the present time.

It’s a pathetic legacy. But as long as the relationship between us remains the way it is, it will not change.