TANGATA WHENUA AND TANGATA TIRITI

[1]Everyone who has taken part in the hui of Matike Mai o Aotearoa since 2010 are mindful of the recent increase in immigration.  And, even though some unfortunately share the common misapprehensions about Asian immigration in particular, the essential view that Te Tiriti o Waitangi applies to all people, and therefore has immigration connotations, remains the same. Where the immigrants come from or when they arrived is less important than the relationship with all new arrivals that the tūpuna hoped for in Te Tiriti.

"It seems to me that if we talk about values in a constitution we have to talk about our relationships with every immigrant whether they came here in 1850 or 2015…and if they came from China or South Africa they are part of the treaty…they might be here because of some Crown policy, but some might want to be part of us and that’s fine because the treaty is still with us”.

When I talk about the treaty relationship with other people I like using tangata whenua and tangata Tiriti because it puts everything in perspective about how this thing might work…it values everyone on a whakapapa or relationship kaupapa rather than just a Crown one”.

One of the difficulties in the whole treaty debate has been that it’s always seen as just a Māori problem as if it’s just about our rights.  But Te Tiriti gave everyone else the really basic right to be here…doesn’t matter when they arrived…there’s a treaty relationship for everyone”.

“I’m not that fussed about using the word biculturalism because it’s sometimes just a cooption of our tikanga…like dial-a-kaumātua or dial-a-pōwhiri or rolling out a wero for every old Pop Star who comes here…but where it does have some use is reinforcing the treaty relationship at a much more personal level with everyone who has come here to stay and is now Tangata Tiriti”.

“When we say ‘he aha te mea nui?’ we don’t just mean us or the Pākehā who’ve been here for generations. It’s everyone and that’s what Te Tiriti allows for…that we now have this multicultural place but it all began in the treaty and the relationship that’s meant to exist between us and the Crown”.

“It’s just tikanga to recognise the relationship with Tangata Tiriti even if they haven’t always recognised us…that’s a really important value but it needs the same manaaki that our people tried to show to the first Pākehā”. 

A people’s trust in a constitution, and their willingness to be part of it, always depends to some extent upon the mechanisms it has to ensure participation in a fair and equitable way for all of those whom it is designed to serve.  That is why the constitutional findings and recommendations of Matike Mai are now being presented to and discussed by ever-increasing numbers of Tangata Whenua and Tangata Tiriti. 

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[1] Thirty-second edited extract from pp. 77 – 78 of He Whakaaro Here Whakaumu Mō Aotearoa – The Report of Matike Mai o Aotearoa