The Maori word “Taonga”
The word “taonga” that the Williams chose for “property” was precisely what it meant in 1840 – chattels or ordinary possessions. The word has an interesting history. In 1820 while assisting Kendall and Lee of Cambridge in compiling the first Maori dictionary, Hongi Hika had defined it as “property procured by the spear – tao”. In an appeal for protection by 13 Ngapuhi chiefs to King William in 1831, they said “We are a people without possessions. We have nothing but timber, flax, pork and potatoes.” And their word for “possessions” was “taonga”. Note that two of their four taonga they owed to Europeans. Then with the vast influx of European material goods, they needed a word for them so the meaning of “taonga” expanded rapidly. However, in William Williams’ 1844 dictionary, it still meant only “property”. But ever since its meaning has kept on expanding, even exploding!
Thus Hugh Kawharu displayed his knowledge of 1840 Maori lingo by translating “maori” as “ordinary people” but then proceeded to state: “As submissions to the Waitangi Tribunal concerning the Maori language have made clear, ‘taonga’ refers to all dimensions of a tribal group’s estate, material and non-material – heirlooms and wahi tapu (sacred places), ancestral lore and whakapapa (genealogies), etc.”
Well, maybe now, but why in translating an 1840 document, did he not give the 1840 meaning of this word? He distorted the integrity of the treaty and those who signed it.
What he said is another illustration of the betrayal by the Waitangi Tribunal of public trust in it. Today, treaty-twisters have only to shout “taonga” and those who decide such things give in weakly to their demands. But note that possession of “taonga” was assured to all the people of New Zealand. New Zealanders without the requisite teaspoonful of Maori blood should surely be shouting by now that their “taonga” include all property from motor vehicles and cell phones* to beefburgers, none of which we owe to Maoris.
(Bruce Moon. The Fair Colony. page 5-6)