How Treaty talks can go wrong
A decade after discussions began, our largest iwi, Ngāpuhi, is nowhere near a Treaty settlement. Florence Kerr investigates what happened.
There are two camps in Kaikohe: the have somes, and the havenots. There is no-one here that has it all. On Broadway, the main drag in Kaikohe, Timoti – a descendant of Nga¯ puhi – is having a piece of fried chicken and a few hot chips at the local Bakehouse.
He doesn’t want to give his hapu¯ , or his full name. He won’t be in a photo. He has no faith or trust in the Government.
He wants to live out his days in his beloved Far North but says jobs are scarce, so he sells weed on the side to keep the cupboards topped up. It’s not a lucrative business, he reckons.
‘‘Bloody meth is the drug of choice these days.’’
Timoti says he would like to get out of this line of business; it’s not making him rich, but it is keeping his kids fed and he can’t afford Country Soft butter. ‘‘It’s kinda simple really. If I can open my fridge and see that butter in it, I’ll know I’ve cracked it.’’
Butter aside, Timoti knows his history. When it comes to the Treaty of Waitangi, like many Nga¯ puhi he has been immersed in it from the cradle. The painful stories of his tupuna [ancestors] have been retold down the wha¯ nau line.
He lives 30 minutes west of Waitangi. The place where ‘‘s... went down’’, he says.
‘‘If you’re asking me about the Treaty, I’m glad it’s there. I’m glad because we have a contract to hold those crazy baldheads to account,’’ he says, quoting a Bob Marley song.
Timoti doesn’t mince his words when asked if Ngapu¯ hi could and should sign a settlement. ‘‘We as a people cannot continue to depend on the Government to do what is right by our people because they don’t and they won’t.’’
He knows about the issues that have prevented his iwi from reaching redress. ‘‘People think about Nga¯ puhi as one people. We aren’t.
‘‘Think about all the waka that came onto the shores in this rohe – there were many. The Government are telling us to get on the same waka and sign another document. We can’t because before I am Nga¯ puhi I am my hapu first, then everything else after that.
‘‘We should sign and get the pu¯ tea [money] for our people, but we need to do it for each hapu not as one group, eh. That’s what my nan keeps saying anyway.
‘‘What we need is a great rangatira [chief] to lead the way. We don’t have that any more. We are too busy fighting with each other while our people suffer. We’re our own worst enemy.’’
A DECADE FOR NOUGHT
Nga¯ puhi, the largest iwi in New Zealand, is yet to sign a settlement, and it is unlikely to do so soon.
Intertribal disagreements on leadership, hapu¯ representation, as well as a ruling from the Waitangi Tribunal, have formed part of the obstacles that continue to divide the iwi.
Two groups have formed within the tribe: Tuhoronuku, led by Sonny Tau and Hone Saddler, and Te Kotahitanga, led by Pita Tipene and Rudy Taylor.
Tuhoronuku is the entity that holds the mandate for negotiating with the Crown on behalf of Nga¯ puhi. Te Kotahitanga is a breakaway group, fighting Tuhoronuku’s mandate.
However, another layer involves the ha¯ pu within the iwi, of which 110 have been formally recognised, that have quarrelled about recognition on the negotiation table.
Intertribal factions have continued to hamper any redress and were the main issue that stopped negotiations progressing, former Treaty negotiations minister Chris Finlayson says.
Leadership is the heart of the problem, he believes. ‘‘The reality of the matter is there are deep personality issues that have got in the way, and basically I look at so many of the players and say they lack leadership.’’
Treaty negotiations started in 2009, but it was not until 2014, before the Crown recognised a mandate for Tuhoronuku, that a board was set up to settle claims.
In September 2015, the Waitangi Tribunal upheld an appeal that Tuhoronuku’s mandate undermined the right of hapu¯ to choose who spoke for them. There are 65 hapu¯ representatives of the 110 hapu¯ formally recognised.
The Maranga Mai report was born out of the tribunal decision, which proposed a new entity to settle claims. While Tuhoronuku agreed to hand over the mandate to a new board, it has since backpedalled.
‘‘There is an issue of principle which has arisen,’’ Finlayson says. ‘‘And that is: should Nga¯ puhi be ruled from the centre, with an . . . all-powerful politburo, or should there be a more devolved model of leadership? That’s at the heart of it.’’
Dealing with Nga¯ puhi leadership at the negotiation table was frustrating, he says. ‘‘You feel like the former [British] secretary of state for Northern Ireland, Willie Whitelaw. He used to turn up to a meeting with Catholics and Protestants and he’d say, ‘Gentlemen, can we agree what day it is?’
‘‘And that’s the way I used to feel when dealing with these guys. If one lot said it was black, the other lot would say it was white.’’ Finlayson says there was doubt that Tu¯ hoe would settle with the Crown but, due to good leadership, they were able to.
‘‘I think of Tu¯ hoe, everyone said to me: ‘Oh you know Tu¯ hoe would be the hardest people to settle with’, but you had this extraordinarily gifted man, Tamati Kruger, and a very gifted co-leader in Kirsty Luke.
‘‘They had to deal with a myriad of issues, but the quality of the leadership and the commitment and their eye-onthe-ball approach came through. ‘‘The iwi that really get ahead are where you have strong leaders like Tipene O’Regan, Bob Mahuta. They put their own interests at the back and the iwi interests at the front, and you are just not getting that here. You’ve got people who can’t even agree what damn day it is.’’
Nga¯ puhi Treaty lawyer Moana Tuwhare agrees leadership and ha¯ pu recognition are at the heart of the iwi’s problems.
‘‘We are a confederation of hapu¯ , we have never identified as a single iwi.
‘‘People argue that hapu¯ don’t have capacity or don’t have capability, but we know there are people on the ground that have great capability but they won’t get involved in this process because it is so toxic and pointless and lacks leadership, transparency. You name it, we’ve got it in terms of all the bad ways to govern.’’
Tuwhare believes Tau needs to go. In 2016, Tau was fined and sentenced to community detention and community service for killing and possessing protected kereru¯ and for perverting the course of justice. But he has been able to continue in his role.
Neither Tau nor Saddler from Tuhoronuku would be interviewed. But Tuwhare says the issues are not only Nga¯ puhi’s. ‘‘The Crown has been complicit in all of this in where we sit at the moment,’’ she says.
‘‘For a start, deciding on one large natural grouping for the iwi, then it decided on supporting and funding one organisation (Tuhoronuku) to negotiate the mandate for the whole iwi, and then it was intent on backing that particular horse as far as it could.
‘‘To not only recognise the mandate but to continue to recognise the group, even though it was obvious that Tuhoronuku did not have the support of the large number of the hapu within Nga¯ puhi, and now with the change of Government, we have a minister who has carried on that position, which the National Government left us in.’’
MISSING OUT
‘‘What we need is a great rangatira to lead the way. We don’t have that any more. We are too busy fighting with each other while our people suffer.’’
Current Treaty Negotiations Minister Andrew Little has held hui with the divided factions and believes a deal can be struck this political term.
He says it is Ngā puhi that decides who he deals with and, until Nga¯ puhi decides to change the leadership, he has to deal with what he is given.
‘‘Look, I’m confident Ngā puhi will get a settlement, but it’s going to take effort and it’s going to depend on the support of hapu¯ .
‘‘I think one of the critical issues that we are trying to make sure we provide for is the involvement of hapu¯ ; the Waitangi Tribunal was very clear there needs to be greater recognition and involvement of hapu¯ .’’
A working party involving the Crown, Saddler, Tau, Tipene and Taylor has been thrashing out what a future model could look like, Little says.
‘‘What I accept above all else is that we don’t move forward, and Nga¯ puhi don’t get a chance to move forward, until we get an agreement on the way the negotiations are going to be structured and the results on what that might look like in terms of how hapu¯ are involved and represented.’’
Low employment, education and health issues plaguing Northland should not fall solely on iwi – it is a Crown issue too, he says.
‘‘But the Treaty settlement actually allows you to have a relationship with the Crown. A strong and enduring relationship with an iwi so that the iwi and the Crown can meet as equals.
‘‘The negotiating of redress is about restoring the relationship and the mana of the Crown to, in this case, Nga¯ puhi and Tai Tokerau, so that we can get on and together talk about solutions
for those major problems that we know that that region is facing.’’
Little will not put a figure on a Nga¯ puhi settlement yet. For now, he says the overwhelming response from the people of Nga¯ puhi is to get on with it.
‘‘It has been 20 years since the last big settlement with Nga¯ i Tahu and Tainui. Can we just get on with it so we can just start
thinking about the future together. That’s what drives me.’’
But until Nga¯ puhi can come together, their descendants go another generation without scholarships, grants and whenua development with many having to leave their ancestral land for better opportunities in other areas.
Timoti says the dream of opening up the fridge and seeing the buttery gold is not in his immediate future. He is already planning to leave his beloved Far North community for job opportunities.
He doesn’t want his kids to know only poverty.
‘‘Gotta try and get that Country Soft, eh sis.’’