Maori activist interpretation of the Treaty versus the Truth
Sovereignty
TREATY
ARTICLE 1 ENGLISH WORD USED IN 1840 IN THE ENGLISH FINAL DRAFT
Sovereignty
This is what Article 1 of the Treaty says: “The chiefs of the confederation of united tribes, and the other chiefs who have not joined the confederation, cede to the Queen of England forever the entire sovereignty of their country.”
WHAT THE ENGLISH MEANT THIS WORD TO MEAN IN 1840
‘Sovereignty’ meant for the British the complete power to govern the entire country, including all its people, Maori and non-Maori, all its resources and all its land i.e. the chiefs gave the British the authority to govern the chiefs and their people, their land, and all the resources on that land, forever.
Read more about the concept of sovereignty HERE
MAORI TRANSLATION OF THIS ENGLISH WORD IN THE MAORI VERSION
Kawanatanga
Article 1 of the Treaty in Maori reads as follows: “Ko nga Rangatira o te wakaminenga me nga Rangatira katoa hoki ki hai i uri ki taua wakaminenga ka tuku rawa atu ki te Kuini o Ingarani ake tonu atu - te Kawanatanga katoa o o ratou wenua”
(Kawanatanga)
WHAT ACTIVISTS
TODAY SAY THE WORD MEANS
Delegated and nominal authority. Partial sovereignty.
EXAMPLE
“The chiefs do allow the Queen to have kawanatanga, a nominal and delegated authority so that she can control her people.”
(An opinion piece in the WaikatoTimes for 1 December 2017, partMaori Associate Professor Sandy Morrison of Waikato University. Cited in Bruce Moon. The Fair Colony. Page 7.)
VARIATIONS OF MEANING PUT OUT BY ACTIVISTS
‘’ rather than ‘governance’,
Te Papa has it as ‘complete governorship.’
The Waitangi Tribunal has it as ‘governance’.
WHAT THE ACTIVISTS WANT US TO BELIEVE THIS WORD MEANS
“The chiefs in 1840 only gave the British permission to govern settlers, not Maoris.” COMMENT
This is complete nonsense. In all the correspondence between the colonial office and the governors in NZ in the 1840s, there is absolutely no mention anywhere of Britain only achieving partial sovereignty. The idea is a complete fallacy. Britain achieved full sovereignty. Period. For more, click HERE Read Lord Normanby’s brief to Hobson HERE
By Julian Batchelor
Possession/Ownership
TREATY
ARTICLE 1 ENGLISH WORD USED IN 1840 IN THE ENGLISH
FINAL DRAFT
Possession / ownership
The first paragraph of Article 2 of the Treaty in English reads as follows “The Queen of England confirms and guarantees to the chiefs and the tribes and to all the people of New Zealand, the possession of their lands, dwellings and all their property.”
WHAT THE ENGLISH MEANT THIS WORD TO MEAN IN 1840 MAORI TRANSLATION OF THIS ENGLISH WORD IN THE MAORI VERSION
All the British were saying to Maori in the Treaty was ‘We guarantee you the ownership of the land on which your pa sites sit, and the surrounding land which your tribe say they own, plus all the houses and chattels on your pa sites”.
If 540 chiefs signed the Treaty, this meant, effectively, that land in NZ was divided up into 540 lots, each lot belonging to a particular tribe, apart from land sold by chiefs to settlers prior to 1840. For more, click HERE
tino rangatiratanga
In Maori, the 1st paragraph of Article 2 reads:
“Ko te Kuini o Ingarani ka wakarite ka wakaae ki nga Rangatira ki nga hapu - ki nga tangata katoa o Nu Tirani te tino rangatiratanga o o ratou wenua o ratou kainga me o ratou taonga katoa”
(Tino Rangatiratanga)
WHAT ACTIVISTS TODAY SAY THE WORD MEANS
EXAMPLE VARIATIONS OF MEANING PUT OUT BY ACTIVISTS
Unqualified exercise of Chieftainship Click HERE for an example.
Māori are in charge of their land & resources, and aspirations. Māori acting with authority and independence over their own affairs.
Tino rangatiratanga is a practice: Maori living according to tikanga lore (Maori beliefs / superstitions / customs.
WHAT THE ACTIVISTS WANT US TO BELIEVE THIS WORD MEANS
They say that the Treaty gives Maori the right to own (be chiefs over) all NZ and its resources e.g plants, insects, flowers, fauna, forests, animals, greenstone, birds, water, coastline....literally anything associated with the land etc).
Not even privately owned land is off limits.
COMMENT
The activist interpretation is nonsense. One can’t have ‘partial sovereignty’. ‘Partial sovereignty’ is an oxymoron. For the British, it was sovereignty or bust. Also, Maori activists inside central government are collaborating with activists inside local government to target taking private land.
For more, click HERE
By Julian Batchelor
TREATY
ARTICLE 2 ENGLISH WORD USED IN 1840 IN THE ENGLISH FINAL DRAFT
WHAT THE ENGLISH MEANT THIS WORD TO MEAN IN 1840
MAORI TRANSLATION OF THIS ENGLISH WORD IN THE MAORI VERSION Property. Which means chattels or ordinary possessions (Bruce Moon. The Fair Colony. page 5.)
For more details, click HERE
“The Queen of England confirms and guarantees to the chiefs and the tribes and to all the people of New Zealand, the possession of their lands, dwellings and all their property.”
All the British meant by ‘property’ was chattels.
“Chattels” meant any chattels Maori had on their pa sites in 1840 e.g. wakas, implements, tools, livestock of any kind, and so on.
Today’s equivalent would be house and contents, or house and chattels.
Taonga
The Treaty in Maori reads as follows:
“Ko te Kuini o Ingarani ka wakarite ka wakaae ki nga Rangatira ki nga hapu - ki nga tangata katoa o Nu Tirani te tino rangatiratanga o o ratou wenua o ratou kainga me o ratou taonga katoa.”
(Taonga)
WHAT ACTIVISTS TODAY SAY THE WORD MEANS
EXAMPLE
VARIATIONS OF MEANING PUT OUT BY ACTIVISTS
Treasures Click HERE for an example. Anything prized - applied to anything considered to be of value including socially or culturally valuable objects, resources, phenomenon, ideas and techniques. They say the Maori language is a Taonga. Activists conveniently forget that prior to the arrival of Euopeans, Maori did not have a written language. How can something that didn’t exist before colonisation be valuable?
WHAT THE ACTIVISTS WANT US TO BELIEVE THIS WORD MEANS
Whatever Maori activists say they want, they can have, via their interpretation of the word ‘taonga’ as ‘treasures.’
‘Treasures’ is deliberately broad and vague. Thus it can mean anything, which is just what the activists wanted.
They say that the Treaty clearly mandates that this interpretation is correct and they want all Kiwis to believe that it is correct.
COMMENT
This interpretation is not correct. It’s pure fantasy.
