Beware of This ‘Te Tiriti’ Sillyness

Michael Bassett
Political historian Michael Bassett CNZM is the author of 15 books, was a regular columnist for the Fairfax newspapers and a former Minister in the 1984–1990 governments.

Last week there was a TV interview with a lawyer called Roimata Smail and someone from The Women’s Bookshop. The gist of the TV story was that together they were circulating to all schools a small booklet called Understanding Te Tiriti: A Handbook of basic facts about Te Tiriti o Waitangi. The booklet confirms what any knowledgeable person should know by now: anything that uses the term Te Tiriti is likely to be bullshit, pure and unadulterated. It’s the recently manufactured version of the Treaty of Waitangi, not the one that was actually signed in 1840.

Despite mountains of books and easily available evidence about why the British decided to dispatch William Hobson to New Zealand in 1839, providing him with instructions about how to proceed once he got there, and in particular to gain agreement from Maori to cede sovereignty to Queen Victoria, which he did, Smail is peddling fiction to school children about what actually happened. Quoting from a 2014 Waitangi Report along the way, Smail argues that the Treaty did not cede sovereignty to the Queen over all New Zealanders, including Māori. Instead, she says, the Queen only sought the authority from Māori to control the handful of British settlers in New Zealand at that time. They, according to Smail, all 2,000 of them spread thinly across the whole country, were the main problem confronting New Zealand. She says not a word about the Musket Wars that raged around New Zealand from 1807-1840 where Māori killed somewhere about 50,000 of their own, enslaved many, and cannibalised others. This booklet is designed to hide the harsh realities from school children. 

Hoodwinking children is not what we send our kids to school for. They are quite capable of dealing with the facts. Māori society in pre-colonial days was violent. As iwi managed to purchase muskets, they roamed the country, slaughtering their fellow Māori and settling old scores. As reputable historians have shown, Hobson was dispatched to treat with Māori in order to secure the Queen’s sovereign authority over the whole or any parts of the country willing to agree. He succeeded in gaining consent from most chiefs. In return, the Queen promised to protect the rights of iwi to control their land, villages and treasures. The chiefs agreed that the Crown would have the sole right to purchase Māori land at an agreed price. And, in the Treaty’s third article, the Queen promised to protect Māori and “give them the same rights and duties of citizenship as the people of New Zealand”. The country quietened down, and the Musket Wars ended. The Queen’s representatives gradually introduced law, order and education to the country.

It’s all straight forward. But Roimata Smail’s text promotes the notion that sovereignty was not passed to the Queen, and that therefore, by inference, a parallel system of government still exists: 17 per cent of the population governed by Māori and the rest of us by an elected parliament. Using black print, Smail tells us that “Māori will keep total authority over their land, resources and way of life.” What she means is that those calling themselves Māori, no matter whether they be 15/16 sixteenths Pākehā, don’t have to obey any laws that are passed by former or present governments. Presumably, in her world, Māori will be free to do whatever they like. If they offend against the other 83 per cent of New Zealanders, then tough titty. Intelligent students who think about it might be terrified by the implications of what Smail is telling them. She wants something akin to South Africa’s former system of apartheid for us. Seventeen per cent on top pulling all the strings and 83 per cent putting up with whatever the minority wants to do. Madness!

Smail is employed by the Waitangi Tribunal and regards this non-judicial body as the fount of all wisdom. Her job, and the Tribunal she seems to have such faith in, was set up by an act of Parliament in 1975. In that act appears the original Treaty of Waitangi, both the text in English, and the text in Māori. Both versions contain the first article of the Treaty in which the chiefs in 1840 ceded sovereignty to the Queen “absolutely and without reservation”, or “for ever” to the Queen. Surely, it’s quite improper that the Tribunal, 40 years later, should set about re-imagining the Treaty which the Tribunal is instructed to “observe” and “confirm”. Even more strange that Smail’s misinformation should be sent to all schools in the country for students to study.

If, like me, you feel that her actions are quite improper, then what about writing to your local MP alerting him/her to Roimata Smail’s attempts to spread falsehoods to schools, leading, if unchecked, to unnecessary division and anger within society. Those who want to read the booklet can buy it ($25). They don’t need to have it foisted upon them by overly zealous social studies teachers.

This article was originally published by Bassett, Brash and Hide.