Sunday, January 27, 2013

Hearing to Speech


In 2010 voices were heard in Northland that broke a drought. It was a drought of understanding about our past and the new rains promise new growth in well-being and peace.
On 28 November 2012 a text was released that shares these voices with many more than first heard them at the Waitangi Tribunal Hearings. Ngāpuhi Speaks1 is the Independent Report on the Ngāpuhi Nui Tonu Claim heard before the Tribunal in 2010. It wasn't quite the United Nations Independent Observers Ngāpuhi had wanted, but it was next best with a panel of observers, Pākehā and Māori who sat and listened, and then compiled their report for all to read.
No longer voiceless are people from the turn of the 19th century, who participated in the signing of the documents that first set out New Zealand's (Nu Tireni's) place in the world and its relationships with other nations. No longer hidden from the rest of us is the context and progression that led to Te Tiriti, the document we hear about most. Or rather we hear about The Treaty, a different document, and that is a big part of the story. Te Tiriti was the only document signed at Waitangi on 6 February 1840.
Reading Ngāpuhi Speaks was like an epiphany2 to me, an amazing eye-opener that had me saying repeatedly, “Ah, now I understand; now I see what the argument is.” As with other histories there was at times grief for what was lost, what could have been, and what industrialised, capital-based Europe meeting Nu Tireni led to for the residents of this land. But with this book something was different. Histories to this point have been largely confined to the thoughts and actions of Europeans and governments, because that was all that was known. In this report we are presented with the thoughts and actions of the rangatira (chiefs) of Ngāpuhi, the people with whom the first arrivals conversed, traded, and negotiated. Ngāpuhi Speaks is not about victims and grievances: it is a narrative of agency, in which the vision and strategic decisions of the collective of chiefs in the north becomes clear. Clear too their purpose throughout of being responsible leaders answerable to their people.
The narrative has been handed down to the rangatira's descendants, who continue to live in this place and carry the mana of their tūpuna (forebears). It begins with initiatives taken in response to the first newcomers in the late 1700s: trade on site in New Zealand led to journeys by rangatira across the Tasman and then around the world, for the purpose of negotiating with the chiefs of these other lands to develop understanding and trade. Among the journeys was that of Hongi and Waikato to England in 1820 to meet the British rangatira, George IV. This visit is seen as setting the foundation for friendship and partnership, continued with George's successors.
Hongi and Waikato went not just on their own account, but on behalf of the confederation of rangitira in this area that had gathered regularly from 1808 on, if not earlier. Te Whakaminenga (Assembly) o Ngā Hapū o Nu Tireni was their means to discuss issues related to the newcomers – dealing with problems and utilising benefits – for the health and prosperity of the region and as autonomous hapū leaders collaborating and presenting a combined face to the international scene. This was the group that wrote to King William in 1831 seeking help to get international recognition for a Nu Tireni flag, after a Māori ship and cargo had been seized in Sydney for having no flag. This was the group which, with input from James Busby, James Clendon, and Henry Williams, drew up and signed He Whakaputanga, a declaration of their sovereign power in the land. And this was the group who were the basis for deliberations that led to the drafting of Te Tiriti and signing of the agreed Te Reo document on 06.02.1840. Te Tiriti was for them just another step in the relationship that began with King George. With the Declaration (Whakaputanga) of 1835 still in place, they saw the document Henry Williams presented to them as their agreement for the Queen's kāwana (governor) to have governor-ship over the newcomers and the portions of land granted for their use. The kāwana would be like another rangatira alongside them, and they would work together in all things.
Some readers of this might be thinking: “well, that's just one side of the matter.” Exactly. It is the side that has been missing, lost in silence. Let's hear it to full speech, for the good of us all.
Shalom, Robyn

1Ngāpuhi Speaks: He Wakaputanga and te Tiriti o Waitangi Independent Report on Ngāpuhi Nui Tonu Claim, commissioned on behalf of the Kuia and Kaumātua of Ngāpuhi Nui Tonu, Te Kawariki & Network Waitangi Whangarei, 2012. Copies can be ordered from PO Box 417, Whangarei 0147, 09 4361807 or reotahi@clear.net.nz $30 plus $5 p&p.
2See 6 January service on the website for the significance of this word “epiphany”.