“The Treaty is a fraud,” is a mantra I grew up with in the seventies and eighties. A heap of Maori were upset that in 1840 the Crown signed a document they had no intention of honouring. “The Treaty is a Fraud,” became “Honour the Treaty”, and we still feel the repercussions a hundred and seventy years later after that original deceit.
How ironic that some of those upset Maori of the seventies and eighties are now part of the Crown that has signed another document that the Crown has no intention of honouring.
Because the Maori Party is part of this hoax, it now seems acceptable.
It is indicative of how far race relations have come that the Crown can sign a document for Maori, look us in the eye, smile, and tell us they have no intention of honouring their signatures – and we don’t get upset.
Unless of course, what Judge Eddie Durie and public law expert Mai Chen say is correct. Then there may be potential over time for Maori to claim back territory and resources Maori traditionally owned as well as the right to veto legislation.
When the Declaration was adopted in September 2007, Rosemary Banks our permanent representative in the United Nations noted there were four provisions that were fundamentally incompatible with New Zealand’s constitutional and legal arrangements.
No legislation has been introduced since then that aligns the Declaration with New Zealand’s constitutional and legal arrangements and yet Crown Law advice to John Key differed substantially to that given to Helen Clark. He should explain this difference.
It will be interesting to see whether this government has the stomach to make this a binding Declaration.
I hope our children, grand children and great grandchildren are not going to spend the next one hundred and seventy years protesting, marching and getting arrested in order to have this Declaration honoured.
I hope that in one hundred and seventy years a government doesn’t have to establish a Declaration of Indigenous Rights Tribunal to sort out the grievances that have arisen because the Declaration wasn’t honoured.
I hope in one hundred and seventy years Ngapuhi aren’t preparing for a hearing to sort out our claims against the Declaration of Indigenous Rights.
I hope we haven’t condemned ourselves to repeating history.
As one chapter of grievance nears a conclusion, I hope we haven’t just opened another.
