Sonny Tau: Rangatira's intentions plain

I personally subscribe to the Maori version of Te Tiriti O Waitangi rather than the English, as I am familiar with the discussions that immediately preceded its signing.

This claim is based on my certainty that the Maori rangatira (chiefs) who sat in congress at Toa Rangatira, the seating place of elders at Waitangi, on the days leading up to February 6, 1840, were certainly not silly and did not cede their tino rangatiratanga (leadership/governorship/sovereignty).

I cannot possibly imagine similarly established nations ceding absolute sovereignty, as tauiwi claim, to another nation they knew was of questionable honesty and integrity.

However, to invite them to control their own unruly lot and cater to their own needs is understandable.

Calls for the Crown to honour its part of Te Tiriti O Waitangi started even before the ink on the document was dry. These calls have continued over many years and taken many forms.

Protests have been absolutely necessary in raising national and international awareness of what Maori view as total disregard for their inherent indigenous rights encapsulated in a document that our rangatira referred to as a covenant.

By and large most people living in New Zealand, including a large number of Maori, do not understand Te Tiriti O Waitangi and its place in our society.

Most uninformed tauiwi think of Maori as greedy and wanting things for nothing. They fail to realise that the injustices of the past have not been adequately addressed and Maori, in turn, see tauiwi as continuing to benefit from those injustices.

The arena used over the past 20 years to bring these injustices to prominence has been the Waitangi Day commemorations. These protests have been very effective in influencing pieces of legislation.

The biggest achievement in this area has to be the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975, which gave birth to the Waitangi Tribunal that helps with the facilitation of Treaty of Waitangi claims.

Although the Crown is not legislatively bound by the tribunal's recommendations, the tribunal is the only tool that gives Maori some form of equality in the elongated claims process.

The Treaty of Waitangi Fisheries Settlement Act 1992 is also a classic example of political pressure being applied through Te Tiriti O Waitangi, achieving a just result for Maori.

The foreshore and seabed legislation was seen by Maori as modern-day land confiscation and was the catalyst in forming the Maori Party.

Despite a strong message from voters in the last election that a Maori-Labour Party partnership was the preferred option, Labour decided to seek partners elsewhere. This will be remembered by Maori Party supporters.

In my view, the Maori Party is absolutely necessary in Parliament as we saw Labour close ranks on Maori, even though the hikoi attracted the biggest protest seen in this country.

Contrast that to a few farmers driving tractors to Wellington and up the stairs of Parliament to stall the proposed fart tax, and you can see why Maori will continue to support the Maori Party.

In turn, the Maori Party must reciprocate and listen to the voice of Maori.

And, surprisingly, more and more tauiwi are joining the Maori Party.

As far as Maori are concerned, there is no goodwill on the part of the Crown to honour their part of Te Tiriti O Waitangi - therefore nothing eventuates without protest.

The introduction of the billion-dollar fiscal envelope caused huge unrest among Maori and they concluded that regardless of how just a grievance was proven to be, compensation levels were already determined.

Yet Maori witnessed millions of dollars being poured into propping up private businesses such as the BNZ, with less than one quarter of our average surplus over the past six to seven years being offered as a full and final settlement of historical land confiscations going back 160 years. These grievances include some 22 million hectares of land.

The past five years have seen a positive change of direction within our society as many New Zealanders have come to accept that there are genuine grievances that the Crown has to address.

However, the process of address has succeeded only in pitting Maori against Maori, hapu against hapu, and hapu against iwi.

In many cases, factions of iwi who do not wish to settle land claims with money as compensation but are adamant that "riro whenua atu, hoki whenua mai" - land taken, therefore land must be returned.

That is now the stance of many Maori throughout the country, especially Ngapuhi. Whether this desire is achievable is yet to be determined.

Relationships between Maori and tauiwi have never been better than they are at present. Waitangi Day has settled into a pattern where protest action has abated over recent years and Ngapuhi have taken back control of the commemorations.

Recent years have hardly attracted attention - except for election year, when every politician heads for Waitangi hoping to capture headlines.

. Waitangi Day has become a haven for political parties languishing in the polls as they play the race card after every little incident is magnified out of proportion by the media, which are careless when reporting Maori issues about Waitangi Day. They then wonder why they are banned from the marae proper.

David Lange once said: "We have had our troubles since but the Treaty was not the cause of them. It has been used and abused. Now it deserves to stand as our most powerful unifying symbol."

Mauri Ora to you, David.

* Sonny Tau is chairman of Te Runanga A Iwi O Ngapuhi.