Warriors for their people
Modern Māori politics were forged in an era of inspiring leadership after the Land Wars.
THE FATE OF THE LAND KO NGĀ ĀKINGA A NGĀ RANGATIRA: Māori Political Struggle in the Liberal Era 18911912, by Danny Keenan (Massey University Press, $65 hb)
In the wake of the Land Wars, Māori seemingly disappear from the national narrative, retiring to what Richard Seddon called “their Native fastnesses” to get on with the important business of dying out. Nothing could be further from the truth: the post-war period proved to be one of the most vibrant in Māori, and indeed New Zealand, history. With imperial military spending maxed out on the colonial credit card, and both sides battlebruised and war-weary, Māori and Pākehā took up the arduous task of diplomacy and compromise to negotiate what this country would be. A profusion of Māori political movements flourished, navigating multitudinous pathways towards the ultimate destination, maintaining rangatiratanga in a colonial landscape.
The Fate of the Land by Danny Keenan (Ngāti Te Whiti ki Te Ātiawa) explores the Liberal era of government between 1891 and 1912, focusing on their policies towards Māori and the efforts of rangatira to influence and at times impede Liberal policy. Political history can be drier than a prohibitionist’s party, but Keenan captures the vitality and vigour of this era. The Liberals were our first political party, rejecting the short-lived ministries and fractious coalitions of the past and hammering together a range of sectionalist interests into a united political party. The Liberal era saw the rise of stable government, party politics, populist prime ministers and social reforms. This is the origin story of modern New Zealand politics – and of modern New Zealand. It is also the origin story of modern Māori politics.
The Fate of the Land triumphs in its ability to render this period accessible and alive, thanks to the clarity and confidence of Keenan’s writing. He breathes life into rangatira and the formidable movements they led, framing them beyond a single issue or stereotype.
Pāora Tūhaere is not simply the outspoken leader of a fishing village concerned about his oysters: here he is a national leader and peace maker, attempting to reconcile old friends King Tāwhiao and George Grey, and building a national movement to establish a Māori parliament. Wiremu Pere is no longer the tired old man of parliament, but a leader who
“forcefully resisted unrelieved land purchases, speaking fearlessly to Māori and Pākehā alike”.
Te Kotahitanga, a national movement advocating an independent Māori parliament, is truly given its due: the startling fact that its 1893 petition for a Māori assembly garnered just 3000 signatures fewer than the suffragettes’ petition of the same year speaks to the silencing of Māori stories.
The Kīngitanga and successive Māori kings are presented here as stern, steadfast national leaders. At an 1879 gathering in Te Kōpua attended by Premier George Grey and welcomed by a descendant of Hongi Hika, King Tāwhiao arrived with “an imposing military parade” of 180 bodyguards armed with double-barrel guns, taiaha and pistols, and declared, “I have the sole right to conduct matters in my land – from the North Cape to the southern end.”
Māori positions were complex: the Kīngitanga wanted a separate region under a Māori monarch; Tūhoe wanted complete independence and were temporarily granted it, with a native reservation in Te Urewera. Kotahitanga wanted a separate Māori parliament. All advocated the protection and retention of Māori lands, yet land sales were essential to raise capital to develop those lands.
Despite the proliferation of organised Māori groups, initiatives and newspapers, the results, Keenan argues, were disappointing for Māori. Legislation in 1900 introduced Māori councils to improve sanitation because “there was no point in reserving lands to Māori if they faced extinction caused by infectious diseases”, as well as land councils. But by 1909, both councils were defunct, and the dream of a Māori parliament lay in tatters.
During the Liberal era, the government purchased 3.1 million acres of Māori land, while a further half million was purchased directly by Pākehā. Māori could not assuage settler hunger for land. Yet this does not take away from the deeds of so many valiant and visionary rangatira. As the recent sparring between the Kīngitanga and Ngāti Whātua near the site of the first Māori parliament shows, the mana of these ancestors, and their visions for rangatiratanga, live on. ▮
A longer version of this review will appear on the ANZRB site, www. nzreviewofbooks.com.