Ko te pūtahi o te ngākau o te Hīkoi mō te Tiriti

Wednesday, 20 November 2024

Kua whakamāoritia tēnei pūrongo e tētahi hinengaro rorohiko, ā, kua hihiratia e te kaiwhakamāori a Puna, a Joel Maxwell, nāna te pūrongo i whakapai hoki i mua i te whakaputa hei pūrongo reorua. Nā Straker me Microsoft te hinengaro rorohiko i whakawhanake.

This story, originally in English only, was translated into reo Māori by an AI tool then checked and edited by Stuff kaiwhakamāori Joel Maxwell before publication as a bilingual news story. The AI tool was developed by Straker and Microsoft.

Kotahi te tangata i roto i te huihuinga mano e kore e taea te mau i te nui o tēnei wā, engari mō ēnei tāngata, he nui rawa atu te hira o te Hīkoi mō te Tiriti. Ka pūrongo te kairīpoata a Joel Maxwell mai i te whenua pūtahi - arā, mai i te ngākau o te hīkoi.

One person in a crowd of tens of thousands can’t grasp the enormity of the moment, but for these people, the Hīkoi mō te Tiriti meant everything. Senior journalist Joel Maxwell reports from ground zero - the heart of the hīkoi.

I tipu ake a Sue Garrett i Kemureti, i Waikato, i te ngahurutau waru tekau - he tāone, ā, he wā noki, kāore i te tino hāngaitia ki ngā whawhai mō Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Sue Garrett grew up in Cambridge, Waikato, in the 1980s - a town and a time not exactly synonymous with battles for Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Read this story in English here.

Engari i konei a ia, i Waitangi Park, Pōneke, i te whenua pūtahi i tētahi rā hanga hītori: kotahi Pākehā i waenganui i ngā mano mano o te tangata e haere ana ki te Pāremata ki te tuku i tētahi kōrero mārō.

But here she is, in Waitangi Park, Wellington, at ground zero on a history-making day: one Pākehā among tens of thousands of humans about to walk to Parliament to make an emphatic point.

I ekeia e te Hīkoi mō te Tiriti ki ngā upoko kōrero puta noa i te ao, engari mo tēnei tangata nō tētahi tāone iti o Aotearoa, he mea whaiaro.

The Hīkoi mō te Tiriti made headlines around the world, but for this former small town New Zealander, it was personal.

“He tauiwi ahau … Engari ko tātou katoa he uri o ngāi Aotearoa, koia hoki tō tātou kaupapa ture, tō tātou tuhinga tuapapa, a, ki te tangohia tēnā…,” ka kīia e Garrett, nāna i kōruru te rae.

“I’m tauiwi [non-Māori] … but we’re all New Zealanders, and that’s our constitution, our founding document, and if that goes…,” Garrett, trails off, frowning.

Me te menemene, ka tāpiri mai tāna hoa rangatira, a Chris Watson: “Waihotia.”

With a grin, her partner, Chris Watson, adds: “Just keep your hands off it.”

I kōrero a Garrett ki a Puna hei tētahi o ngā tāngata neke atu i te 42,000 i heke iho ki Pōneke mō te hīkoi - he hīkoi nāna i tō tāngata mai i tua atu i ngā tepe iwi, ahurea hoki hei tautoko i Te Tiriti.

Garrett spoke to Stuff as one of more than 42,000 people who descended on Pōneke for the hīkoi - a march that drew people from across ethnic and cultural boundaries to support Te Tiriti.

Ko te hīkoi i hangaia ki Waitangi Park, he wāhi pātītī 6-heketea me te wāhi repo i runga i te ara moana. Ko ngā tāngata me ngā haki Tino Rangatiratanga, kara, tohu, pēpi i roto i ngā waka pēpi, ngā mōkai, ngā hoa, ngā hoa kura, i huihui mai ki ia mokowā i wātea. Ka whakatā ngā pēperekōu i runga i ngā pae tata ki Cable St, e whakawhirinaki ana ki ngā pou haki whero, mā, pango hoki.

The hīkoi formed in Waitangi Park, a 6-hectare grassed and wetland area on the waterfront. People with Tino Rangatiratanga flags, banners, signs, babies in pushchairs, pets, friends, schoolmates, poured through every open space. Elderly people rested on benches near Cable St, leaning on flagpoles sprouting red, white and black flags.

I kī a Justin Tamihana, mai i Foxton, o Ngāti Raukawa me Ngāti Huia, ko te tino take o te hīkoi, ko te kotahitanga - e mau tahi ana i te iwi.

Justin Tamihana, from Foxton, of Ngāti Raukawa and Ngāti Huia, said the hīkoi was all about kotahitanga - bringing people together.

“Tau kē tēnei, kua whakapiri mai tātou te iwi Māori, te hapori ki Aotearoa, kua tae mai nei i raro i te mana i whakakotahi ai tātou,” ka kī a ia.

“This is awesome, we’ve stuck together as Māori, the community in Aotearoa, who’ve come here under the mana that makes us one.”

I te pātaitanga ki tana karere ki te kaiārahi Rōpū ACT, a David Seymour, “Whakarongo ki te tangata,” tana urupare.

When asked for his message to ACT Party leader David Seymour, “Whakarongo ki te tangata [listen to the people],” was his response.

“Ka whawhai tonu mātou, mō ake tonu atu, nā te reo a Rewi Maniapoto. Āe, e tautoko ana i ērā momo kōrero.”

“We’ll never stop fighting. That was what Rewi Maniapoto said, and I agree with those kind of messages.”

I tana whakawhitinga ki te reo Ingarihi, ka haere tonu a ia me tētahi karere urupa: Mēnā ka “haere te Kāwanatanga ki te pānui tuarua, kāore koe e whiwhi i te urupare ōrite ki tēnei rā”.

Switching to English, he continued with a sombre message: If the Government “takes it to the second reading, you’re not going to get the same response as today”.

I kī a ia ka inoi a ia kia whakarongo te Kāwanatanga ki te iwi, ka whakakotahi ki te hīkoi.

He said he prayed that the Government listened to the people, united at the hīkoi.

Kua whakaae te Pāti Nahinara ki te tautoko i tā ACT Pire Matapono Tiriti mā te wāhanga tukunga tūmatanui i te Pāremata. Ka whakakapia e te pire nga tikanga maha, e whakahuahua ana me pēhea te whakatinana i te Tiriti, me te tokotoru e tuku ana ki tētahi pōtitake here.

National has agreed to support ACT’s Treaty Principles BIll through the public submissions stage in Parliament. The bill would replace numerous principles, outlining how the Treaty should be implemented, with three that would go out to a binding referendum.

I te 10.30am i te Tūrei, ka haere tahi ngā manomano tāngata i whakawhānuitia kē i te papa rēhia, ki te takiwā o te tiriti.

At about 10.30am on Tuesday, the crowds which had been dispersed across the park, started to move towards the road.

Mai i te taumata tiriti e kore rawa e tāea te tino mōhio ki te nui, ki te rahi tūturu o te hunga katoa - me te mōhio hoki ki tana hira i te hītori. Kua porehu taua nama katoa ki ia tangata, ia tangata, e karapoti ana ki ngā rau tāngata engari he kore hiwi i runga i ngā tohu, ngā mahunga, ngā kara, me ngā pou haki e mau ana, i huna nei i ngā manomano anō.

From the street level it was impossible to understand the true size of the crowd - and the history that was being made. The total size was a mystery to each person, surrounded by hundreds of others but without a vantage point above the crest of signs, heads, banners and hefted bamboo poles wielding flags that hid the thousands more.

I henga tōpuni ngā tāngata, Māori mai, tauiwi mai, i runga i te haerenga mārire.

People were elbow to elbow, but the march was constant, the people friendly, Māori and non-Māori alike.

Nō ngā pakeketanga katoa noki rātou - kei reira te takirua a Ariki Rauhihi rāua ko Micheal Rauhihi me tā rāua pēpi, Mckenzie Raihihi, 1, i runga i tāna hīkoi tuatahi. Kua whakatūria ki tana waka pēpi he pou hāki e mau ana i Te Kara, nāna i haramai mō te hīkoi hoki.

They were all ages too - Ariki and Micheal Rauhihi were there with daughter Mckenzie Rauhihi, 1, who was on her first hīkoi. Mounted on top of her pushchair was a tall, makeshift flagpole with the United Tribes flag coming along for the ride, too.

Ko te hīkoi tuatahi a Mckenzie, ka kī tōna pāpā, a, i tūmanako a ia ko ia te whakamutunga - tērā pea ka noho a ia ā muri ake nei i te wāhi kāore i hiahiatia aua mea.

It was Mckenzie’s first hīkoi, her dad said, and he hoped it would be her last - that she might live in a future where such things were no longer needed.

Ko ngā tau tērā i tae ai te waero o te hīkoi ki te Pāremata, ka pōkaitia ki te waipuke, ka roromia te hunga i ngā taha o taua rohe.

Such were the numbers that by the time the tail of the march was reaching Parliament, it was packed to overflowing, crowds squashed in around the sides of the area.

I te tīmatanga o ā ngā kaipōrangapū me ngā pūkōrero kōrero i roto rā, i te mutunga o te whiore o te hīkoi ko Padre Phillips, i runga i tana hōiho, ko tētahi wāhanga o tētahi rōpū e āta hīkoi ana ki runga i a Willis St me tētahi rōpū hoa.

Inside, as the politicians and pūkōrero (expert speakers) started their kōrero, at the very tail end of the hīkoi was Padre Phillips, on his horse, part of a contingent slowly clopping down Willis St with a group of friends.

I heke iho a ia i Te Matau a Māui, i reira a ia i uru ai ki te wāhanga Ikaroa-Rāwhiti o te hīkoi. I poho kererū i a ia kia mau i te haki o Te Hapori Hōiho nā te tono a tana whaea kēkē.

He had come down from Hawke’s Bay, where he took part in the Ikaroa-Rāwhiti leg of the hīkoi. At his aunty’s request, he was proudly carrying a Māori Horse Association flag.

I a ia i Pōneke mō te wāhanga whakamutunga o te hīkoi, he mea hira ki te tangata o Ngāti Kahungunu - i rongo a ia e haere ana ētahi hoa kia kī ai: “Ka haere tahi mai ahau me te korokē, mēnā kei te haere mai koe, ka whāia e au.”

Being in Wellington for the final stage of the hīkoi was important for the man from Ngāti Kahungunu - he heard that some mates were heading down so he said: “I’ll come with the bro, if you’re coming through, I’ll follow up.”

Nō te putanga atu o ngā hōiho, ka wātea ngā tiriti, ā, ka puta mai ngā tāngata umanga māori noa i ngā tiriti taha, i ngā toa, i nga whare tari anō.

Once the horses passed through, the streets emptied and regular business folk appeared from side streets, shops, and office buildings again.

This is a Public Interest Journalism-funded translation through NZ On Air