HISTORY DOES REPEAT

In the Split Enz’ song “History Never Repeats” it’s clear the singer is learning through bitter experience that the one he is singing about has already been unfaithful.  Poor boy.  He ought to learn and live the whakatauki, “Me hoki whakamuri, kia ahu whakamua, ka neke,” because in order to have foresight you do need hindsight. 

That is why, when dealing with the Crown, Ngati Kahu rightfully hope for the best but always prepare for the worst.  When you consider the Crown’s history with them, they’d be unwise not to do so.

Briefly that history is one in which the Crown has lied to and stolen from Ngati Kahu’s hapu and then bullied and punished them for refusing to kowtow to it.  In fact, after stealing more than 215,000 acres of their land, the Crown has consistently refused to return those lands on anything but its own terms.  As for compensating them for the lost opportunities caused by its thievery, the Crown steadfastly refuses to even consider doing that.

There is not enough space in this post to cover its entire history, but it is plain to see the special vindictiveness of the Crown towards Ngati Kahu’s hapu as displayed by its Minister of Treaty Negotiations in 2010 when he told one of those hapu via state television they could “Go to hell.” 

What had they done to earn his thin-spirited, ferret-faced ferocity?  After 170 years of waiting for the Crown to do the right thing, they had repossessed a minute portion of their lands and invited him to come and talk about its return to them. 

Now, in its recently released Te Hiku Claims Settlement Bill, the Crown has signalled that it not only intends to settle the claims of the other four iwi in the region, it also intends to give them as much of the lands it stole from Ngati Kahu as it can, thus making sure those lands can never be returned to the hapu who still rightfully own them.

And in a clause never seen before in any settlement legislation, the Crown will write new legislation that allows it to steal Ngati Kahu’s share of the accumulated forest rentals currently held by the Crown Forestry Rental Trust, and then transfer it to the Public Trust until Ngāti Kahu agrees to fully and finally settle all its claims.  

Given the terrible reputation of the Public Trust for charging huge fees and costs just to hold the moneys vested in it, you should watch this space.  And while you are doing so, remember the question asked in another Split Enz song, “What more can a poor boy do?”  Once again Ngati Kahu’s hapu could very well provide the answer in another of their whakatauki, this time from their tupuna Kakaitawhiti who said,

Ka patua ko au ko te tito ko te porangi.  Ko te anganga i Titi iho i te rangi.  Ko nga rakau tu patapata o te hauauru ki te tonga, ko nga toko kopuni o te hau raro, ko Kai Tawhiti te tangata, te uri o te tangata. 

Death to the liar, the insane.  Hail the chosen Chief from heaven.  Through the gentle rain forest of the west, southward, held upright with a cloak against the north wind, comes a Chief from afar, a descendant of another.

Indeed, as Ngati Kahu already know and the poor boy is still learning, history does repeat – often.