Northland iwi Ngati Kahu has finished drafting a letter to King Charles III calling on him to stop what they say is a violent attack on Te Tiriti O Waitangi, a Maori academic and iwi chairperson says.
Makere Mutu presented her evidence on the second day of the urgent Waitangi Tribunal hearing into the Treaty Principles Bill.
She echoed concerns raised by fellow claimants – including linguists, academics, historians and legal professionals – about the Act Party’s interpretation of the Articles of the Treaty in its Democracy or Co-Government Policy Paper.
Mutu said Act’s paper was “nonsensical” and its “cherry-picking” approach led to the creation of sentences in te reo Maori that “made absolutely no sense whatsoever”.
“Which tells me, either that the person has absolutely no understanding of the reo at all or is so disparaging of the reo that they think nothing of doing it, such a damage, such a gratuitous violence to our language … a language is precious and you don’t go messing about with it,” Mutu said.
NZ Herald
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