Dr Rawiri Waretini-Karena, Annette Sykes, Jean Te Huia, Ripeka Ormsby, Labour Minister Hon: Meka Whaitiri, #HandsOffOurTamariki 2019 – Photo supplied
In a recent call to action, there is a strong recommendation to retain 7AA which links to Te Tiriti o Waitangi within the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989.Whilst some suggest that Te Tiriti o Waitangi is about ethnicity, ancestry & Maaori privilege, this article unpacks some of those perceptions.
Originally, Aotearoa NZ was Tangata Whenua Maaori land, and it has been for a millennia. Te Tiriti o Waitangi enabled Maaori to invite everyone to a seat at the table, building relationships based on partnership, protection and, participation.
Every single person in this country can be considered a Te Tiriti o Waitangi partner, Because when Hobson signed the document, he signed it for and on behalf of the British Empire, and all future generations coming to our shores. It wasn’t just for British & European settlers, it was for everyone regardless of race.
In the New Zealand Parliamentary debate 1867, legislators discussed the impact of trying to exterminate Maaori. Parliament could no longer bank roll another war as it would not only cripple the colonial economy, it would break its back. So parliament adopted an assimilation strategy from England’s Select Committee on Aborigine’s that systematically targeted Maaori children to be assimilated to Western views and coerce them into upholding Western pedagogies.
The strategy became known as the Native Schools Act 1867.
If you visualize the Native Schools act 1867 as a stone dropped into a pond, it will create ripples. The first ripple made te reo Maaori illegal. The second ripple saw te reo Maaori banned by the state in education & religious institutions. The third ripple gave legal justification for beating and abusing Maaori children for speaking their Native language. The fourth ripple saw the status of tama-ariki change from taonga or treasure to a lower status as a commodity. This saw the fifth ripple where generations of Maaori children experienced abuse, neglect & death at the hands of their care givers, who as children suffered corporal punishment at school, and then as adults, applied the same type of discipline to their children, leading to state care.
From 1950 to 1999, over 200,000 children experienced abuse in state care perpetuating a never ending systemic cycle of fractured homes, fractured families and fractured communities, without any intergenerational insights into the insidious systemic mechanisms that created the problem in the first place.
Dr Jacquelyn Elkington, Minister for Children-Hon: Tracey Martin, Dr Rawiri Waretini-Karena- Rotorua hui 2019 – Photo supplied
The Waitangi tribunal, and the remuneration process recognised that the inalienable, inherited rights that Maaori held previous to, and recognised under Te Tiriti o Waitangi was systematically breached over numerus generations leading to intergenerational poverty, the loss of cultural heritage, and the near extinction of te reo Maaori, and that these breaches led to the privileging of Paakehaa at the expense of Maaori.
This accompanied a political in-tent-ion-al-ity that enabled historical amnesia to pervade this country perpetuating ideas about Maaori riding a privileged gravy train, as opposed to acknowledging a history of invasion, war and genocide and the confiscation through the theft, of trillions of dollars worth of land, recourse’s and assets.
The damage done to Maaori children in state care over generations removed their Native voice and cultural heritage controlling the deficit way generations of Maaori children perceived themselves.
Mereana Pitman conveyed that; colonisation/ assimilation taught generations of Maaori to hate themselves, and each other. Because a people alienated from their cultural heritage are like a tree without roots, who aren’t grounded & anchored into their whakapapa, customs, or language.
It left generations of Maaori children in schools and statecare vulnerable to manipulations of the state who in reality never had their best interests at heart.
When politicians use the phrase, the health, safety and wellbeing of Maaori children is “paramount“, a history of assimilation and abuse says otherwise.
The healing journey begins with reconnecting Maaori children in state care back to their whakapapa, customs and language. And for this country to move forward as a catalyst for change, embrace working together as a country of Te Tiriti partners honoring our history, whilst simultaneously ensuring our futures from a place of aroha, humility, compassion and collaboration building the type of honoring and respectful race relationships that would be the envy of the world.
Te Arikinui Kiingi Tuuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero Te Tuawhitu: Hui aa Motu-National Unity Hui 2024 – Photo supplied
