WAITANGI WEEK

Whether we’re on the annual Hikoi to Waitangi or on Te Tii marae, at the Iwi Chairs Forum or inside the Forum Tent, out on the road or inside any of the numerous stalls, the week leading up to Waitangi Day in Waitangi has its own unique stress points and release mechanisms. 

For decades the stress points were generated by a relatively straightforward clash between pro-colonists (generally Pākehā privileged by being part of the majority colonising race) and anti-colonists (mostly Māori credited as part of the indigenous minority colonised race). 

However in recent years the line between these two camps has blurred as more Pākehā have shifted to the anti-side, and more Māori have settled on the pro-side.  But the facts are that most Pākehā protestors haven’t been able to shake off their majority privileges or claim minority cred, while most Māori settlers haven’t been able to keep their minority cred or claim majority privileges.

Two examples from this year’s Waitangi Week illustrate the difficulty.  First, the way the government swanned into the Iwi Chairs Forum without any real threat of getting staunched into tears showed that even the most powerful collective of Māori leaders in 2014, most of whom have settled, has less influence and power on the leaders of the majority race than one aging Māori matriarch had in 1998. 

Second, the misunderstandings in the Forum Tent between a few Pākehā presenters and a number of Māori listeners showed that, regardless of how much the state may have smashed them over or how worthy their cause may be, unless they’ve paid lifetime dues like John Minto, and even he has to tread carefully, by and large Pākehā protestors have yet to gain the trust of their Māori counterparts.

Added to this mix is the phenomenon of minority amplification in which any change in an already imbalanced relationship always hits the minority more than the majority, thus ramping up the imbalances.  An example of this is the way Crown settlement policies divide whānau, hapū and iwi. 

It should be clear by now that, unless we want to leave a legacy of discord, we must find and provide a lasting release mechanism from the growing stresses between us all.  Whatever that mechanism turns out to be, education will be the vehicle, the will of the people will be the key, political will must provide the fuel, and a sense of tikanga must provide the spark.  Let us pray for it to come sooner than later.

Until then, for most New Zealanders who have never been taught about the relationship between the signatories to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the causes of the imbalances in that relationship, Waitangi Day is just that, a single day off.  But for those inside an iwi, it’s a Waitangi Week in which we get to stir the Crown up to remembrance of its duty to us all.