M¯aori rights

Incredibly, 51 per cent in a recent poll still think governments have gone too far in recognising Ma¯ ori rights. Just what don’t these respondents understand, from 40 years of historians’ publishing and Waitangi Commission findings, that the Treaty, even in 1840, was understood by the most astute observers to be about a sharing of governance between iwi chiefs over their tribes and the Crown over English colonists.

The Treaty, In Lord Cooke’s phrase, still urges both parties to honour their “fiduciary obligations” to govern together for the betterment of all in A¯ otearoa New Zealand. But for 175 years, iwi have been stripped of their resources, their self-governance, and serious input into government decision-making.

So Chris Finlayson rightly suggests National’s new leaders build relationships with iwi leaders, not approaching like Moses with tablets of answers, but by sitting down beside rangatira and ordinary Ma¯ ori, to just “listen”, and take to heart their aspirations.

Gary A Clover, Nelson