DOCTRINE OF DISCOVERY

Ngāti Kahu is a member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.  Although they do not attend every session of the Forum, they did so in 2004, 2009 and again this year. While there they contribute to what are known as ‘interventions’, which is a way to seek UN involvement in the internal affairs of a state by various means.

In 2004 the hot issue was the theft by the crown of Te Takutaimoana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act.  As a result the UN sent Special Rapporteur Rodolfo Stavenhagen in 2005 to report on the human rights and fundamental freedoms of Māori. His report was damning of the government. You can read it online at http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/srnzmarch06.pdf

In 2009 Ngāti Kahu again sent a representative to join with other Māori to  counter the Crown's spin regards the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) which New Zealand finally signed in June 2010. A month later the UN sent Special Rapporteur James Anaya to do a follow up report on the situation of Māori people in New Zealand. His report can he read online at http://unsr.jamesanaya.org/country-reports/the-situation-of-maori-people-in-new-zealand-2011. Although he noted some improvements, he also noted more needed to be done by the government.

This year the issues range across almost every political and legislative activity.  Resource exploitation, asset sales, charter schools, birth control for beneficiaries, union lockouts and many more issues are problems for everyone.  And increasingly everyone is seeing that the solutions hinge on a written constitution. 

That is why Ngāti Kahu was asked by Te Whakaminenga o Ngā Hapū o Nu Tireni to go to the Permanent Forum this year and seek UN support for a written constitution in this country based on the mana whenua and tikanga of each hapū, Te Whakaputanga o Te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni and Te Tiriti o Waitangi.  While specific to New Zealand, the intervention also fit with the Forum’s theme for its 2012 session; the Doctrine of Discovery.

This Doctrine is what European nations, particularly Spain, Holland, France and England, used to justify the wholesale theft of the lands and resources of indigenous peoples throughout the world and the subsequent genocide as millions were murdered and many nations entirely wiped out.

It is based on the false notion or myth that white Christians are somehow superior to all other people and must always dominate the world. It is the basis for the current legal and government systems we have in New Zealand and is what underlies the deeply ingrained racism we are constantly subjected to.

Over the next few weeks I will share reports on what happened at the Forum as this Doctrine and its modern day consequences were discussed.