THE RANGATAHI VALUES

 [1] All of the seventy wānanga organised by the rōpū rangatahi of Matike Mai o Aotearoa (the independent constitutional transformation working party) devoted a great deal of time to kōrero about values and relationship.    

One of the exercises in the rangatahi wānanga involved participants identifying what tikanga were in operation in selected activities and then discussing how they might be applied in a constitutional setting. 

“If you look at it like this tikanga is everywhere, like it is at the Kura. It’s part of what we’re expected to do and our whānau had to sign up to it when we started…Whaea said that made it our constitution”.

“I think that everything a government does should be based on tikanga. Otherwise they might make bad decisions and pollute Papatūānuku or something”.

From these and similar exercises the rangatahi defined some general values which they believed should be provided for in a constitution including manaakitanga (nurturing the mana of others), kaitiakitanga (guardianship), kotahitanga (unity), mana (ultimate power, prestige and authority), muru (redress), utu (restoration of balance), and hohou rongo (establishing peace).

  

They also identified five core values which would be the base for all of the others.  The first of those values is the health and wellbeing of Ranginui and Papatūānuku.  

Rangatahi were concerned about the environment and asked that any new constitution include the recognition and protection of Ranginui and Papatūānuku to ensure they are adequately cared for. 

They considered that treating our whenua, lakes, rivers and other water bodies with respect should be an underlying constitutional principle and also called for constitutional recognition and protection of traditional knowledges and the associated kawa and tikanga –

“Without the whenua we are not tangata whenua so we have got to look after it. Everything in this (constitutional) mahi should start with that”.

“The land is everything…and it includes all the tikanga that goes with it”.

“We need to look after our kāpata kai for future generations to come and look after it just because it’s what our tīpuna left for us”.

The rangatahi also recognised that constitutional recognition of Papatūānuku depended upon the effective exercise of rangatiratanga –

“Threaded through all of these desires was the aspiration and need to reclaim and uphold our mana whenua and our mana moana, so that we have the right, ability and power to make decisions and uphold this as whānau, hapū and iwi”.

Over the next few weeks we will review the remaining four core values identified by the rangatahi.

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[1] Forty-fourth edited extract from pp. 95 – 96 of He Whakaaro Here Whakaumu Mō Aotearoa – The Report of Matike Mai o Aotearoa