Memo to Chris Hipkins and other politicians - don’t call me ‘non-Māori’. I’m not a ‘non’: Denis O’Reilly

OPINION

Note to Chris Hipkins and all other politicians: Please don’t call me ‘non-Māori’. I’m not a ‘non’. I am who I am, a Pākehā New Zealander, Tangata Tiriti.

At Ratana Hipkins recently conceded that Labour didn’t always get things right whilst in office. That includes the Māori-policy bonfire that was your knee-jerk response to the pre-election polls, and the perceived shift to the white.

Your statement that Labour failed to take ‘non-Māori’ with you betrays, in that simple taxonomy, an adolescent view of Te Tiriti. Like another Tiriti-illiterate politician, David Seymour, you confuse race with indigeneity.

Community advocate Denis O'Reilly. Photo / NZME

Most New Zealanders are of mixed race, but the notion of indigeneity is that it is a link between a person’s and a group’s identity that links them to specific places with knowledge of and respect for original ways.

Along with other New Zealanders whose ancestral roots lie in whenua other than Aotearoa, I claim a rightful place in this land because every day I do my best to honour the deal between the original inhabitants of Aotearoa, Tangata Whenua, and the Crown, representing those of us who have arrived since 1840, and indeed those who may have only recently taken the oath of citizenship.

The ‘deal’, Te Tiriti o Waitangi is often referred to as a partnership. Some quibble over this term. Call it a coalition then. I don’t care, just honour the agreement. Tangata Tiriti was a term first used by Sir Edward Taihakurei Durie at Waitangi in 1989 when he was chair of the Waitangi Tribunal. Ta Eddie said that Tangata Tiriti belong to this land by right of Te Tiriti. He noted that without Te Tiriti we Tangata Tiriti would have no lawful presence in such numbers nor any legitimate political right in this part of the Pacific.

Through Te Tiriti, Tangata Tiriti have a synergistic and productive relationship with Māori and the land of Aotearoa New Zealand. James K Baxter once put it, “Where He, and we, go hand in hand, simply by being who we are and following the Māori Star.”

I’m picking up the challenge laid by my Dalmatian friend Matua Shane Jones and am going to Waitangi to discuss Te Tiriti. I’ve booked the Rangatira room at the Copthorne Hotel, Waitangi, and invite other New Zealanders who wish to identify as Tangata Tiriti to meet at 10am on February 3, 2024 to advance our commitment to and fulfilment of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Denis O’Reilly is a community advocate, a life member of Black Power, and a recent member of Grey Power.