Standing up to speak out

UNDER URGENCY: Tina Ngata will be among a number of speakers at next week’s M9 gathering in Tamaki Makaurau Auckland. Picture supplied

Tina Ngata (Ngāti Porou) is looking forward to the opportunity to kōrero about urgent issues facing Māori, on the stage of M9.

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The two-hour event is set to take place on March 8 in Tāmaki Makaurau where nine powerful Māori voices will explore Te Tiriti o Waitangi in the event’s sixth instalment called Ka Tohe Au, Ka Tohe Au! I AM THE SOVEREIGN. The nine different kōrero are shared to inspire, empower and entertain.

Tina’s work involves advocacy for environmental, indigenous and human rights. This includes local, national and international initiatives that highlight the role of settler colonialism in transnational issues such as climate change, waste pollution and pandemics.

In 2019, Tina published Kia Mau: Resisting Colonial Fictions, a collection of essays which explore the application of the doctrine of discovery in Aotearoa.

In the same year, she co-founded the award-winning Manaaki Matakaoa programme, a community-centred, flax roots oranga service that rallied the community to rise to the challenges of extreme isolation and limited health infrastructure.

She is now embarking on her PhD on the doctrine of discovery in Aotearoa, discussing how it continues to drive colonial injustice, and models for dismantling its racist legacy.

Other speakers at M9 will be Te Rangi Āniwaniwa Trust CEO Hone Harawira, Te Ara Kura educator Dr Veronica Tawhai, Māori constitutionalist Eru Kapa-Kingi, activist Pere Huriwai-Seger, Te Pati Māori MP Tākuta Ferris, indigenous and environmental rights advocate Dayle Tākitimu, investigative journalist Mihingarangi Forbes and Māori development advocate and treaty negotiator Professor Ella Henry.

The event is emceed by Gisborne’s Mātai Smith.

Tina says it’s an exciting opportunity to be with other front-line activists, advocates, protectors and educators around He Whakaputanga - Declaration of Independence, and te Tiriti o Waitangi.

“It’s an opportunity to be discussing some urgent issues which have always been important, such as how we arrange ourselves and advance towards being a just nation. It is an important issues and is particularly urgent now because we have some very explicit threats to our status as a just nation,” Tina Ngata said.

One of the threats to Māori is the Government, she says. Not just the present Government but the Government “in and of itself” is a threat to Māori.

“Even though we don’t have a formal written constitution in the eyes of the Government, for us as Māori we believe that He Whakaputanga and Te Tiriti o Waitangi is a written constitution.”

He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni, known in English as the Declaration of Independence of the United Tribes of New Zealand, is a constitutional document of historical and cultural significance.

“So when you have a government that gives itself permission to consistently violate the written constitution in the form of Te Tiriti and He Whakaputanga, that is a threat to Māori and a threat to our justness as a nation,” Tina said.

“The current party in power has simply pressed fast forward on that process of harm. They have advanced it significantly and were always going to head down the pathway of harm, like it has always done to our people, because it always denied and violated Te Tiriti o Waitangi.”

At M9, she will talk about colonial myth- making .The whole event will be about the importance of dismantling colonialism.

“If you understand colonialism as an inherently harmful and dehumanising process, then it follows that we have a responsibility to dismantle it and move beyond it,” she said.

“I’ll be debunking some key colonial myths that continue to justify colonialism and keep it in place.

“The Government has consistently thought that it can honour Te Tiriti in other ways such as consultation and engagement but those are constructs and myths,” she said.

“Those are the types of myths I’m talking about, that you can honour Te Tiriti through consultation while still denying the right to self-determination which is embedded in the concept of rangatiratanga.

“Every government since it was formed in 1852 has denied us the right to self- determination which is at the heart of Article 2. “

She said it was absurd that the Government derives its own expression of governance from Te Tiriti but it doesn’t want to respect Te Tiriti for the basis of rangatiratanga.

She said Waitangi Day this year was a defining moment where many from te ao Māori came together with a singular message, “whakamana te tiriti, toitu te tiriti — don’t mess with te tiriti”.

“So many from te ao Māori came forth with all of that development and understanding (of Te Tiriti) to say no, honour Te Tiriti.

“Other Waitangi Days you would have different people with different kaupapa to talk about different aspects of Te Tiriti in its multiple context. Here the core kaupapa was of Te Tiriti itself being at threat, not the context but the core kaupapa. Te ao Māori showed up in force to say that it means a lot to us.”

It wasn’t just Māori who showed up in force, she said. there were also huge numbers of tangata tiriti, non-Māori, who were there, to tell the Government they expect them to honour Te Tiriti.

“People calling themselves tangata tiriti, not tangata treaty — it was a really powerful statement having multitudes of Māori and non-Māori saying don’t mess with it, tinker (with) it or redefine it.”

Tina will be speaking more about colonial myths, such as the concept of “kind colonisation” and how the United Kingdom used less force in New Zealand compared to others.

Tina will be speaking about colonial myths, such as the concept of “kind colonisation” and how the United Kingdom used less force in New Zealand compared to others.

“Many colonial myths have come from the doctrine of discovery, which was based on a set of assumptions about European supremacy.”

Tina has advice for anyone wanting to become better Te Tiriti partners ­— “Learn about Te Tiriti, know the actual articles of it and learn the context of the time.”

Listening to people like those speaking at M9 is another way to learn more, she said.

“These would be excellent people to listen and learn about what it is to honour Te Tiriti.”

Another is to join a Tauiwi mō Matiki Mai group.

Matiki Mai was a report released in 2016 by Margaret Mutu and Moana Jackson and others that looked at what a new way to honour rangatiratanga would look like. It is available online to read.

Tauiwi mō Matiki Mai draws from that research and is about non-Māori who understand respect that journey and support the pathway to a just Aotearoa through honouring Te Tiriti, “and how we do government”.

“A lot of the animosity towards these discussions is from a fear-based space. I would encourage people to be open to the idea that actually this is about a process of reducing harm, not creating more harm or redirecting to another people, but reducing it for all of us and being the best nation we can be.

“It’s not just about Māori. Te Tiriti was the way in which our tīpuna agreed for non- Māori to make their home here so long as it didn’t come at the expense of those of us whose home it already was.”