#tangata tiriti

[chaithetics]

The first reading of the Treaty of Principles Bill is happening now, you can watch on Parliament TV (online or TV). Remember this day. Remember how our MPs and Parties voted. Show up and remember this colonial trauma when you vote at the next and every following election. Do not be complicit in more colonial violence.

[lady-wildflower]

Kia ora, me again.

So I thought I'd add something on.

Two days ago, a march began against the Treaty Principles Bill. Interesting use of the word began, some of you from the rest of the world might think. Well, I don't mean a march down a city street.

I mean a march from Pōtahi Marae, all the way to Parliament. For reference, Pōtahi Marae is only 30km southeast of Cape Reinga, the northernmost point of Aotearoa, and Parliament in Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington) is about as south as you can get in Aotearoa without having to take a ferry or plane to Te Waipounamu (the south island). That's a more than 1000 kilometre route, and yes, some of it will be done by car but large chunks of it won't be.

This march, or hīkoi, follows in the footsteps of the 1975 Māori Land March, another such hīkoi made in response to continuing theft of Māori land by Pākehā who deemed it "unproductive" and passed laws allowing it to be compulsorily turned into public land and used by Pākehā against Māori objections. That march took 29 days. This hīkoi will be nine.

ACT are attempting to declaw and destroy every victory Māori have ever won against the encroach of colonial oppression, and prevent any further victories. They even suddenly brought forward the introduction of the Bill to before the hīkoi and, more importantly, before the Waitangi Tribunal could make their analysis of it. That means the Tribunal, and any official voice that can point out how flagrantly this Bill violates te Tiriti, is being explicitly cut out, they're not allowed to step in on Bills already before Parliament as I understand it.

I'm brain disabled (autism), not in very good shape, and don't already own walking shoes. By all rights I should not even be thinking about going to a march this long. I'm still going. It's going to be a hell of a distressing disruption to my routines to sort out shoes before I go, and breaking in new shoes with a fifteen kilometre walk in the hot sun probably isn't the best idea, but I'm going to join it. The hīkoi passes through Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland), where I live, tomorrow, and will march across the Harbour Bridge from Onepoto Domain (departing at 10am), splitting into two to go to Takaparawhau (Bastion Point) and Ihumātao. My only lament is that I know that I'm not going to be able to continue with them south. I can't make that journey, and I can only imagine the dedication and strength, mental and physical, of those doing it.

It should not be in any way notable that I'm going. But Pākehā, like me, need to be taking part in these things far more. And it's to other Pākehā in particular I'm talking to when I say that.

We have a duty to support the fight against this Bill, against normalising it even if it fails. All these evils, all these attacks upon Māori, they were done in my name. In our name. They weren't my ancestors, I'm a first generation kiwi, but that doesn't matter. It was done in my name, so that I and every other Pākehā after them could have a miniature England to live in in the Pacific. As (I would like to think) tangata Tiriti, we have a duty to spit on that and say no. No, you do not do that in my name. To stand in kotahitanga with tangata whenua and uphold our Treaty. To any Pākehā who've reblogged my little explanation above after @takataapui reblogged it, get off your keyboard and join the hīkoi if you in any way can. Even if it's just one leg of it.

Not in my name. Toitū te Tiriti.

I know most of tumblr is thinking about the USA right now. but fuck the nz government right now too. tomorrow, the treaty principles bill, the 'worst, most comprehensive breach of Te Tiriti in modern times' is being introduced to parliament early, because there were activations planned country wide and the cowards decided to pull it forwards. fuck this government. a friend of mine had to go home early, crying. I've been in shock all day since it came out.

check on your Māori friends, e hoa mā. see what they need. see how you can help. everyday, we see and experience racism. from people around us, up to our government. community care will save us.

[merricat-3]

I stand with Palestine, and all Indigenous and oppressed peoples.

🍉❤️

Collective liberation; that is justice, and healing for all.

From a neuroqueer enby, Aotearoa ⚧

[bluewatersfairy]

Hīkoi te Tiriti arrives in Pōneke today to reach Parliment and I just wanted to take a second here to say our current government is racist and full of the worst kinds of people. Fuck David Seymour and the entire ACT party, the treaty bill they proposed is purely about taking the little Māori are promised (because Te Tiriti is barely honoured) and uses the term "equality for all" and talk of the youth of Aotearoa to disguise the pure hatred that it represents.

Aotearoas reaction and protest to this bill is peaceful opposed to this violent-natured bill. We are watching our tangata whenua be stripped our their rights (AGAIN) and be told that they have no right to the whenua that has and always will be theres.

I have a lot to say on this but it is not my voice that matters. I wanted to share this monumental day with you all, and make it clear that I stand with Tanagata Whenua (Māori peoples) the same way they have stood with my Pasifika brothers and sisters in the past. I stand on their whenua, they are Aotearoas past, present and future.

Today, and every day, I will be yelling as loud as I can, Toitū Te Tiriti, honour te Tiriti.

[tetohe]

This was incredible to be part of! To see so many people from every sort of background walking in unity, not just against the bill, but in support of moving forwards as a country centered around Te Tiriti.

One for the literal history books...

50,000 people 🖤🥝

[moonprincess92]

As pākeha, we have a duty to honour te tiriti. Māori are tangata whenua, they had their sovereignty and rights taken away from them and amending te tiriti like ACT is suggesting will be detrimental and only do harm to Māori who already face discrimination and racism in our country. this te rā o Waitangi, I want to e tū, stand up and boost some Māori voices that I enjoy

@geooojones on tiktok @stanwalker on insta @uncletics on tiktok, also has a podcast @lisaperese_ on tiktok @quackpirihi on tiktok

This is honestly only a tiny handful, please feel free to reblog and add more Māori creators that you enjoy ❤️🤍🖤 ngā mihi me te kia kaha!

[sandumilfshou]

how insanely racist do you have to be to put a whole entire bill before parliament when the ONLY thing that bill is for is to remove one minor clause from the childrens' wellbeing act (oranga tamariki act) that states that when removing indigenous māori children from abusive or harmful situations that their wider family/whakapapa (whānau, iwi, basically other māori relatives) and their mana (status, dignity, prestige) when making the decision of where to rehome them

like. i cannot imagine how people can be so confident standing up in our parliament and saying this needs to be removed. when worldwide the colonial history of stealing indigenous children is a well-documented practice.

when māori kids already struggle connecting with their identity and culture, don't speak their own native language because it was beaten out of their grandparents and kaumātua, are looked down upon for having an accent and speaking a certain way, are having their rights as tangata whenua stripped away by parliament as we speak. there are so many tamariki ashamed of who they are because of what society says about māori and this is just being pushed by this disgusting, racist coalition that somehow got elected into power

this bill being put forward to parliament is not making ANY other changes to the oranga tamariki act. this is not just one section of a wider series of changes looking to be made. this bill is SPECIFICALLY to just remove this one part of the oranga tamariki act that honours and gives effect to te tiriti o waitangi

i literally cant put into words how disgusted i am. every day it feels like the coalition are doing something evil and i can barely stand it anymore

[falaipisupo]

i caught the end of the hikoi live stream and man 🥹🥹 i love Māori, i love tangata whenua, i love being tangata tiriti, i love being tagata moana ❤️🤍🖤 my heart is so full seeing tens of thousands of people flood the capital to show this racist, colonial fucking government that the people do not want this. Māori never ceded sovereignty, Toitū Te Tiriti.

[discoverylover]

Tangata tiriti are the guests here! We don't come to someone else's home and change it to how we want, especially when that makes it actively hostile to the original people there. That's just rude.

btw I think the big thing that matters in NZ is that our founding document is not a constitution it is a treaty

this gets confusing sometimes because people try to treat it as a constitution and it does serve some of the same functions as that

but the thing about a treaty is that you can't make amendments in the way you can a constitution - it's a bilateral agreement and it needs bilateral agreement to be changed (the current Bill which is causing the furore is an attempt to unilaterally change what it means, a thing which is incompatible with the idea of a treaty)

and the thing that people (David Seymour) don't like is that it specifies different provisions for Māori and non-Māori, so they're trying to overwrite that

the thing is: of course Māori and non-Māori have different provisions. There are specific protections for taonga and whenua (treasures and land) and in return the rest of us get to live here

like very literally this document is the basis of our right to exist in this land please consider not undermining that

[heavenbarnes]

i tenei wa e whakaaro ana ki nga tangata katoa o te hikoi ki toitū te tiriti 🫶🏼

[takataapui]

hi there, i'm sorry if you're not interested in answering these kinds of questions, but i'm having a lot of difficulty understanding the treaty principles bill that's being brought to parliament. all the sources ive read seem to be using big words to confuse people who don't know any better, and sadly i am one of those people. i have no idea what impact this would have if it passes. could you give any clarification?

copypasting from @sandumilfshou, thanks for this explanation e hoa, my little vent post blew up way more than I was expecting:

the treaty principles bill is essentially "redefining" the articles of te tiriti under david seymour's dumbass belief that acknowledging and putting into effect any policy or legislation that does this means that te tiriti is giving māori "special privileges" that no other people in aotearoa have and therefore is racist. so it basically seeks to redefine the two parties within te tiriti from māori and the crown to "all new zealanders" and the crown. effectively this destroys the whole point of te tiriti and would remove any/all protections for māori as tangata whenua* and undermine rangatiratanga** completely. its insidious and disgusting ✊🖤❤️🤍✊ *broadly this can be understood as the recognised acknowledged indigenous people of the land **sovereignty and self determination of māori. this particular word has a lot of meaning that the original te tiriti signing fucked over due to eng/te reo translation bullshit

I'll also add that there are heaps of iwi (loosely translated as tribes) that haven't been able to/had the resources to file a treaty claim with the Waitangi Tribunal (a system created to 'reconcile' the ways Te Tiriti was breached), so Principle 2 fucks over a lot of smaller iwi and hapū.

As well as my mention of the hīkoi being a reason why the bill was introduced earlier, it's also highly likely that the date change was due at least in part to the Waitangi Tribunal not being able to publish material related to government bills once they've been introduced.

[roboticutie]

Anyone heard of the complete strike the Māori Party are encouraging tomorrow (Thursday, May 30 2024) in NZ? Any and all Māori and Tangata Tiriti are asked to strike from any and all economic activities. Take leave from work, do not purchase anything aside from necessities, etc. and attend their nearest rally/hīkoi in their rohe.

Click here to find a rally near you, Aotearoa/NZ folks! There is also a rally scheduled in Gold Coast, Australia!

[chaithetics]

Hey! I'm assuming you're not from Aotearoa (New Zealand is the legal but colonial name)? I'm Māori (the indigenous peoples of Aotearoa).

Last year we had a right-wing government come in, we have an MMP electoral system so we have a coalition of three parties and opposition of three parties. One of the government parties, ACT, who is led by David Seymour has made this Bill his political priority.

Our constitutional document is Te Tiriti o Waitangi a te reo Māori (indigenous language) partnership between Māori and the Crown signed in 1840. There is an English version of the document that has mistranslation that benefits the Crown and Europeans more ofc. With international law and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, te Tiriti takes precedent. There have been Treaty claims from iwi (tribes) about colonisation and discrimination as Māori experience worse education and health outcomes and are overrepresented in state care and abuse and throughout the justice system, have had language loss etc. So treaty principles were created for the Tribunal.

This Bill is essentially redefining and misinterpreting te Tiriti and violating it, our Ministry of Justice (if you're American like your Department of Justice) and Waitangi Tribunal have both said this Bill is dangerous and should be abandoned. It violates te Tiriti, misinterpets it, feeds a false narrative that Māori have "privileges" and gives a lot of power to this government for Waitangi cases and is about making Māori second-class citizens and denying our indigeneity and is encouraging more discrimination under the guise of making things equal for everyone.

Our current Prime Minister initially said this Bill wouldn't happen but it was part of the coalition agreement between the three parties in to support it to its first reading. It's been said they won't support it any further but their word is not reliable and it never should've come in in the first place.

I've tried to sum it up because it would be hard to get into all of the misinterpretations when a lot of it is te reo Māori terms and history. But this Bill is a modern act of colonial violence. The link I have at the top is a post with more info if you're curious but thank you for supporting

❤️🖤🤍

THE TREATY PRINCIPLES BILL IS BEING PRESENTED TO THE HOUSE TOMORROW!!!!!!!

EDIT: Here's a link with more info on the Bill and it's contents and breaches!

This matters to EVERYONE in our country! If you're Māori this is about our LITERAL existence, if you're Pākehā, tauiwi, tangata Tiriti this concerns you because Tiriti is what gives you the privilege of existing on this whenua! The Waitangi Tribunal has already said this Bill will be the biggest Waitangi breach ever. YOU have a responsibility to do something.

ACT, our coalition government, and the Ministry of Justice have been intentionally keeping this bill under the wraps. Mad mihi to the MoJ analyst who leaked that draft though (I'm sure they got sacked if not massive repercussions).

What we know so far is that Te Pāti Māori, Green Party, and Labour WILL NOT be voting for this and that ACT, NZ First, and National WILL be voting for this tomorrow. NZ First and National have said that they WILL NOT support this Bill after its first reading so it will go to Select Committee and then die at first reading.

National and NZ First have said they'll only support this Bill to first reading (thankfully) but there is always the chance of closed door promises & favours and we still need to advocate for this disgusting bill to die.

I'll post more about submissions when they open for Select Committee but I'm happy to help answer questions or help with that and the process.

But the racist idiots to email and drill in that you DO NOT want this Bill are...

ACT MPs

1. David Seymour (Email: David.Seymour@parliament.govt.nz ) (the one bigoted brain cell behind this bill)

2. Brooke Van Velden (Brooke.Vanvelden@parliament.govt.nz)

3. Nicole McKee (Nicole.McKee@parliament.govt.z)

4. Todd Stephenson (Todd.Stephenson@parliament.govt.nz)

5. Andrew Hoggard (Andrew.Hoggard@parliament.govt.nz)

6. Karen Chhour (Karen.Chhour@parliament.govt.nz)

7. Mark Cameron (Mark.Cameron@parliament.govt.nz)

8. Simon Court (Simon.Court@parliament.govt.nz)

9. Parmjeet Parmat (Parmjeet.Parmat@parliament.govt.nz)

10. Laura Trask (Laura.Trask@parliament.govt.nz)

11. Cameron Luxton (Cameron.Luxton@parliament.govt.nz)

AND

- Prime Minister Christopher Luxon (Christopher.Luxon@parliament.govt.nz)

- Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters (Winston.Peters@parliament.govt.nz)

If you're able to participate with any part of the hīkoi please do and please be safe!!!!

Toitū te Tiriti! Ake ake ake!

[dykethang]

i think i speak more te reo māori than i give myself credit for to be fair i just... struggle with the confidence to engage with others? if someone has a kōrero with me in māori i will just respond in english even though i fully understand everything they're saying. super embarrassing. something i would love to Not Do in fact!

some of my pākehā friends are waaaaaay more confident speaking the language than i am and i think it's just cause there's no baggage for pākehā and tangata tiriti like there is for tangata whenua. which feels unfair. but the only real way to get past it is to just keep pushing myself i guess and uni WILL push me esp. in the reo classes lol

[chaithetics]

Principles of the Treaty Bill Info/Summaries

If like David Seymour, you don't want to read the documents, here's some bullet points for Treaty Principles Bill, the Waitangi Report, and the Regulatory Impact Statement for the Bill. But if you want to read I included links (he's said on the record he didn't read the Waitangi report...)

But seriously, it is your responsibility to read and educate yourself on this and to show up, at the very least making submissions when Select Committee happens but also emailing MPs and showing up to the Toitū te Tiriti hīkoi and activations if you can. Especially if you're Pākehā or tauiwi because this whole Bill and process is MORE colonial trauma for Māori.

1st reading is next week (11th-15th Nov) ACT are the only party in Parliament that will vote for it at its 2nd reading, still disgraceful from National that they'd let this be introduced at all.

The Bill Summary

The Act would come into force 6 months after the referendum if it was successful (we know it's not getting past 2nd reading).

The Principles here wouldn't apply to historical Tribunal claims. The Act would bind the Crown.

Principle 1 is about the Executive Government having full power to govern all New Zealanders. Misinterprets Kāwangatanga.

Principle 2 is that the Crown recognises the rights of iwi and hapū as long as they don't differ from everyone else unless specified in a historical Treaty Claim. It feeds into the myth of "Māori privilege' that ACT is spinning. This also revokes the Crown's promise made in 1840. Also a breach of some of the previously established principles tino rangatiratanga, kāwanatanga, partnership, and active protection

Principle 3 is just that everyone would be 'equal under the law.' Misinterprets article 3 of the Treaty/Tiriti and is another breach of several of the above principles.

The Bills says that these principles MUST be used for interpreting enactments and other principles cannot be used. Discredits important principles in previous Tribunal cases and creates a narrow scope.

Read the Treaty of Principles Bill here.

Waitangi Tribunal Report

Says that the Bill principles are misinterpretations and misinterpretations of Tiriti/Treaty and are breaches of accepted principles from precedence like active protection, equity, tino rangatiratanga, kāwangatanga, and partnership.

There was a lack of community consultation on this Bill, especially with Māori. This aspect and the Bill itself will be extremely damaging for Māori-Crown relationships.

Introducing this Bill is a Tiriti/Treaty breach.

This Bill is trying to legislate assimilation with Māori as the indigenous peoples here. The report also states that assimilation is discredited as a phenomenon.

Māori will experience significant prejudice due to the breaches and will be carrying the brunt of the created social disorder with the introduction of the Bill and throughout the Select Committee process.

The Tribunal supports its previous finding from the earlier report that this Bill should be abandoned. They then say that if the Government won't abandon it, due its constitutional significance it should be referred to the Tribunal under the Treaty Act (1975).

You can read the recently published Waitangi Tribunal report here.

Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS)

A RIS is a document from the relevant Government Agency that looks at the proposed legislation and analyses its risks, impacts etc. This RIS reflects a lot of the Waitangi Tribunal's report.

For upholding Tiriti/Treaty obligations, maintaining constituional legitimacy, promoting social cohesion, and creating greater clarity the Ministry of Justice believes that the Waitangi Tribunal and Courts are best to continue articulating these principles in line with precedence.

The RIS also says the Bill misinterprets Tiriti, especially article 2.

MOJ mentioned time constraints as a limitation of this RIS. A RIS Quality Assurance panel of MOJ and Ministry of Regulation (Seymour's newly formed Ministry) employees said it did not meet quality assurance criteria though because of the lack of options and time constraints. I think it raises fair points.

You can read the Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS) here.

Toitū te Tiriti!