SOVEREIGN SYMBOLS

When teaching our tamariki mokopuna about He Hakaputanga o Nga Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni, it helps enormously that the oral traditions from our tūpuna are very clear about the context in which it was drawn up and signed, and that it declared our sovereignty.  

It also helps that those oral traditions have remained consistent in both content and transmission down through the decades, and have been recorded in a growing body of literature that accurately conveys the context of our sovereignty.

As early as 1808, many of our tūpuna rangatira i te raki had become concerned about the “hapū hou” (new tribes) arriving on our shores, and the impacts they were having.

By 1816 those concerns had grown to include the lawlessness of many of the British immigrants (the largest of the new tribes) and their refusal to adhere to the law of the land, tikanga Māori.

These concerns were discussed over many years by the rangatira in their respective rohe as well as at hui of Te Wakaminenga o Nga Rangatira o Nga Hapū.  In 1820, a delegation of rangatira led by Hongi Hika, visited the British King, George IV of England, and asked him to send someone to control his lawless subjects.  In 1831 Te Wakaminenga wrote to the new British King, William IV of England, again asking that someone be sent to control his lawless subjects.

In all their interactions with British royalty, our tūpuna rangatira were very clear that whatever controls they imposed upon their subjects, the mana of the rangatira and the hapū remained intact in its fullness; it was only the lawless British who needed to be controlled.

In 1833 King William acceded to their request and sent a British Resident, James Busby who in 1835 drafted He Hakaputanga which declared, among other things, that the many hapū of Māori throughout the country each maintained our own mana and that no other system of government would be permitted to exist over our lands, territories, peoples and possessions.

Although the English translation document was inaccurate, in that it declared that all hapū had formed a collective and that sovereignty of the country resided in the collective and would never be ceded to any other power, King William of England acknowledged and recognised the correct and signed document when he endorsed He Hakaputanga o Nga Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni, having earlier accepted the kara that the rangatira had chosen to signal the identity and authority of our hapū.

These, then, were significant events that brought Māori on to the world stage, and become pivotal in establishing and protecting Māori sovereignty and international trading relations.

Personalised versions of the sovereign kara were made and flown by different hapū from 1835 onwards, and some of those original kara can still be seen to this day. 

 

As symbols, they too are enormously helpful when we are teaching our tamariki mokopuna about He Hakaputanga o Nga Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni.