RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

A common complaint from aggrieved Pākehā is that there should be no special rights for Māori because, before the coming of Europeans the concept of ‘rights’ was completely foreign.  Therefore, Māori should have no rights other than those that Pākehā have. 

This is an example of what is known in psychology as a ‘formal fallacy’, which is a pattern of reasoning that is always wrong because one or more of its premises or justifications is false.  For example it would be true to say, ‘if Bill Gates owns Fort Knox, then he is rich.’  It would also be true to say, ‘Bill Gates is rich.’ But it would be false to then conclude, ‘Bill Gates therefore owns Fort Knox.’

The premise that Māori did not know about ‘rights,’ is false.  In fact, unlike the European settlers who arrived in this country with a cultural zeitgeist that women and children were chattels, the concept of ‘rights’ was not new to Māori at all.  It was, and still is, intrinsic to the holding and exercise of all expressions of Mana with their associated kawenga and herenga (responsibilities and obligations). 

If the same pattern of reasoning used to justify complaints about Māori special rights were applied universally, the rights of women to breastfeed their babies in public, of disabled people to have reserved parking spaces, and of landowners to deny access to the public would also be challenged along with a myriad others. 

I’m happy to note that, not only do Māori have special rights, but our children also have their own unique subset of rights as follows. 

“Maori children have the right to know their Whakapapa and their whānau, hapū and iwi connections; know their marae and waka and the kawa of both; know their korero tawhito (history); learn and be taught in te reo rangatira; know the tikanga of their tūpuna (values and philosophies); be valued and respected as Tangata Whenua in Aotearoa; know the concepts of oranga for the wellbeing of their taha wairua, hinengaro, whānau and tinana; expect the Treaty of Waitangi to be honoured for the benefit of the mana of their Tūpuna and the future of their mokopuna; expect safety, protection, love and hope; know they are descendants of Ātua.”

This statement was developed in 2010 and is now taught as part of the Mauri Ora wānanga.  Unlike the opening complaint, it is not a fallacy. Instead it is a statement of special rights which, sadly, remain a dream for too many of our children.   

Indeed if I have any complaint about special rights, it’s not that they exist, but that they aren’t sufficiently valued, defended and upheld.  That is a right and a responsibility which I am honoured to hold and use.