Let's get over our Waitangi Day shame
Thursday, 8 February 2018
OPINION: When we're supposed to celebrate our national Waitangi Day, we don't. Instead we take a day off and pretend we can't feel the shame of what the Treaty of Waitangi means for race relations in New Zealand. The Treaty should unite our country but it is often used to divide us instead.
Recently it was Sir William Gallagher who took a swipe, now it's Sir Bob Jones… again. What do the two men have in common? They're old white males knighted for their service to business and by their recent public actions, both very offensive.
Jones, in his latest column pulled by the National Business Review, said 'I have in mind a public holiday … Māori Appreciation Day in which Māori tangibly express their gratitude for existing thanks to European immigration, by a day's voluntarily labour for non-Maōri folk, would be an excellent initiative for the new government.'
Gallagher said in November last year, 'There is no doubt (Māori) gave up sovereignty… and now we have all these bloody reparations going on. It's separatism. This is apartheid. There is no definition of Māori… you are Māori if you feel you are Māori.'
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Neither men base their sensational rants on fact or reason.
So why are the two knights so disparaging of Māori? And why do they both target the Treaty of Waitangi and the claims process when they harangue the public about the superiority of colonialism, irrational Māori blood quantum arguments and complain that Māori get special privileges. Despite everyone knowing Māori as a group of people experience poor health, a lack of education, high unemployment and shocking statistics in the justice system.
Both of their views are extreme but is perhaps an indicator of an underlying issue, New Zealand has a race relations problem.
It's probably why we don't really celebrate Waitangi Day proudly as a nation.
There are no grand parades to shout out the anthem, no fireworks, little traditional community or family gatherings, few festivals and no pageantry at all. Except for politicians and news media grandstanding on the Waitangi Treaty Grounds in Paihia, and a few annual events across the country, we hardly commemorate Waitangi Day.
Most Kiwis just take the day off work and if the sun is shining, head to a waterway or park for a quiet picnic or barbecue with hardly any time spent on contemplating or celebrating our nationhood.
If we were a proud nation, proud of our achievements we would shout it out loud, party hard on Waitangi Day as we do when the All Blacks win a World Cup or when Team New Zealand lifts the Auld Mug. Instead our festivities are muted, subdued affairs. If not for the politicians, a protest or public rant by a notable Kiwi somewhere in the country we'd hardly notice Waitangi Day.
Let's face it: our national day, Waitangi Day is a date many want to forget.
It's the anniversary we pretend to not care about because we'd rather not face the truth about the one thing we are not so proud of as a nation, our race relations record.
We all feel shame about Waitangi Day because we know what it represents. Māori feel shame because we are told how bad we are, non-Māori feel shame because we are told how bad we are. Shame creates anger, indifference and suffering.
But the Treaty deserves to be celebrated, we all deserve to feel proud.
Waitangi Day is when Te Tiriti or the Treaty of Waitangi was signed between the Crown and Māori in 1840, a hononga or unifying agreement to manage race relations, law and order, immigration, authority in perpetuity. But since 1840, the promised partnership disintegrated into land wars, confiscations, the Crown selling off Māori land, unchecked immigration, introduced diseases, flora and fauna, and the immeasurable loss of te reo and matauranga Māori over generations. These issues marginalised Māori and inevitably led to the present day inequalities and unconscious bias experienced by Māori across all sectors of our society.
The treaty claims process, a form of redress by the Crown to Māori for breaching the Treaty of Waitangi is a contentious issue but it has a purpose to help right the wrongs of the past. Gallagher called it a farce, Jones said it is a gravy train.
But the 1995 National Government that set up the claims framework believed it was necessary to restore honour to the Crown, and to assist Māori economically and socially while acknowledging there would be no parity for Māori while the claims existed.
The Government admitted then that it is not possible for the Crown to fund the total loss suffered by Māori.
Many argue treaty settlements should be benefiting Māori now but aren't. Post settlement tribes would say they're doing all they can with the little amount they received. But again, the intention of the Crown in 1995 was to ease Māori grievance through settlements without denying Māori continuing access to Government programmes. A right given to all New Zealand citizens.
Prime Minister Ardern made a speech pre-Waitangi Day, a rallying cry to do better for Māori. 'We have failed in our partnership but I inherently believe in our power to change,' she said. Many leaders before her have made similar statements especially around Waitangi Day. But whereas others have barely been held to account in the past, Ardern and the Labour Party with it's high Māori vote have left themselves open to be challenged if Ardern doesn't make good on her promises especially to reduce Māori incarceration rates.
But it is not just the Government that needs to act. We all need to celebrate Waitangi Day and be proud of who we are as a country. The only way we can do that is to grow up, own our shame and decide to change together.
To do this, we must demand real action from the government, local authorities, iwi leaders and ourselves to provide equality for Māori, to help Māori succeed and by default, help New Zealand to succeed.
We can be proud of our country when all of our citizens are equal or we attempt to create equality and ignore the extreme views held by Gallagher, Jones and others like them.
Let's fix our race relations and be proud of our achievements so we can have a great big raucous party with the whole country on Waitangi Day.
It's the only way we'll ever be able to let go of our shame as a nation, to grow up and move on.
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