1984 Hui – what was covered

Tu Tangata, Issue 21, 1 December 1984, Page 14

1984 Hui - what was covered

na Charlton Clark

The 1000 or so participants in the Treaty hui came with a determination to hammer out the treaty issue and try to come up with some consensus of opinion among maoridom about what to do about it. That marvellous feeling of euphoria that accompanies the start of any hui, when people meet up again with old friends and acquaintances, set the tone for the weekend, and although there was a lot of anger expressed by many people, by and large it seemed without bitterness or hatred.

A message written in maori from Tai Tokerau kaumatua Sir James Henare and read to the hui on the first night proved significant to the end results of the weekend’s korero. Sir James said the treaty still held mana and should remain that way. He said it was the laws passed by governments since the treaty was signed that had confused the treaty’s meaning, and he warned against pushing for the treaty to be enshrined in anything like a Bill of Rights. “I fear that governments will change the treaty if it is placed as a law of the land,” Sir James said, ending

with a plea for the deliberations to be carried out in a spirit of higher levels of thought and in lowliness and humility. The fact that Sir James had to deliver his thoughts by letter highlighted a significant feature of the hui, and that was the absence of many of maoridom’s leading kaumatua, who were still in North America after the opening of Te Maori art exhibition in New York. Apparently when the clash of dates was realised, the organisers tried to have the hui held at a later date, but found Turangawaewae was fully booked for many weeks ahead, so it had to go ahead without them. Some people thought their absence would be important, but others privately expressed the feeling that it would lead to a more open and worthwhile expression of views. The hui format involved the many different groups’ spokespeople airing their views and putting suggestions to the participants as to how they would like to see the treaty issue worked out, and a number of formal papers discussing different aspects of the treaty issue. Later the participants broke up into workshop groups to discuss the sub-

missions made. Each workshop looked at a different aspect of the treaty issue, and afterwards the workshops reported back to the hui as a whole, from which session the final recommendations of the hui were drafted. Particularly warmly received was the report from a youth workshop, which included members of groups like the Waitangi Action Committee and people who had been identified with the “radical” protest movement. The warm reception accorded this group’s report highlighted the spirit of tolerance between young and old that the hui fostered. The youth workshop was one of the angriest of all, expressing young Maori people’s impatience with the failure of the pakeha over 144 years to come to terms in a meaningful way with Maori grievances over the treaty. One of the most publicised outcomes of the hui came from these workshops, and that was the call for Waitangi Day celebrations to be stopped, or at least be replaced with a national conference to discuss the treaty, without the pomp and ceremony and military presence that usually characterises the celebrations.

One group that came in for a severe caning was the Church, and Maori church leaders at the hui admitted the criticism was deserved. One set of documents doing the rounds at the hui outlined the struggle Maori people in Nelson were having to win back land they had donated to the Church last century for a school for their children and other beneficial activities, with the promise that the land would be given

back when the church no longer needed it for the school. The school closed down before the turn of the century, but the church hung on to the land, and was now subdividing it and selling it off as sections. This particular struggle highlighted Maori anger at similar events involving Maori land in church control all over New Zealand, but a workshop which looked at this particular problem was unable to reach

agreement on a recommendation that all Maori land in church control should be handed back. Maori Affairs Minister Koro Wetere attended the hui throughout, and in the end the responsibility for action was firmly placed in his lap. Among the major resolutions passed by the final sesson of the hui and handed on to Mr Wetere were:

* That Waitangi Day celebrations in their present form be stopped and instead the four Maori MPs call a hui for the days leading up to and including Waitangi Day, at which all sectors of New Zealand society could discuss the treaty. All symbols of Maori oppression, such as the police, army and navy, should be withdrawn from their traditional involvement with Waitangi Day. * That Maori people are suspicious of the Labour Party’s proposal to enshrine the Treaty in a Bill of Rights, “because we believe we already have one, i.e. the Treaty of Waitangi”. * That the Treaty of Waitangi Tribunal should be given retrospective powers dating back to 1840. * That the Maori Land Court should be given powers equal to the High Court. * That the beds of rivers and lakes should be returned to the owners, who should also have rights over the water. * That Maori Land Court procedures should be changed to prevent the alienation of Maori land. * That a body comprising 50 per cent Maori members and 50 per cent nonMaori should be set up to sit between Parliament and the Governor-General. It should ensure that all proposed legislation is consistent with the guarantees of the treaty, rule on Waitangi Tribunal recommendations, and formulate compensation programmes for the Government to implement. * That a law should be enacted to ensure that all legislation is consistent with the principles of the treaty. * That the Maori Affairs Department should be made accountable to the people for its actions, especially for its frequent underspending of its budget, “thereby handing back millions of dollars to the Government while Maori needs are so widespread and critical”. * That all government departments should establish a real Maori dimension, and especially the Education, Justice, Health and Social Welfare Departments and the Treasury. * That because Maori women comprise more than 50 per cent of the Maori population, “there must be equal representation in all areas of decisionmaking”. At the end of it all was a promise from Mr Wetere to ask his Cabinet colleagues to set up a commission “forthwith” to look at all the recommendations discussed at the hui, and not just those resolutions passed by the hui.