Rob Campbell: Ngati Pākeha need to listen to tangata whenua on Māori issues

Former Health NZ chair Rob Campbell, says Pākeha should listen to Māori. Photo / Michael Craig

Opinion:

The Hui a motu was an important event in itself, part of a process of rolling back colonisation, which citizens of goodwill will welcome. There is a lot more to come in terms of talk, reflection and action.

Those who have not been observing well may overlook how much of this is not new but has been intensively part of Iwi Māori life for a long time. Just because such matters have not been prominent in the minds of some others does not mean any of this is new in a Māori context.

As a Pākeha, part of tangata tiriti, I claim neither expertise nor even a need to do other than listen (really listen with open mind and heart) to how this unfolds amongst Iwi Maori. A much more appropriate and useful role, other than staying informed and positive about that process, is to consider and prepare amongst tangata tiriti for what the outcomes will be. This is not something that can be set aside thinking that this process will dissipate or reverse. It should not and will not.

The English version of the Treaty of Waitangi is vandalised at Te Papa in response to David Seymour's proposed Treaty Principles Bill and Referendum. Image / Rod Emmerson

We are in a period of global crises of which the current Iwi Māori Tiriti process is part. This period is of the type described by the Italian thinker Antonio Gramsci (from prison as it happens) as:

“The crisis consists precisely in that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.”

Yes, such things as the Act party approach to Te Tiriti are “morbid symptoms”.

There are overriding global aspects of crises – notably environmental, but also geopolitical and others. How we relate to those will be dependent on the base we have as a nation – the nation formed around Te Tiriti and its predecessor He Whakaputunga.

So far as within Aotearoa is concerned, the central reflection of the crisis is that around Te Tiriti. The resolution of that will not be a single event or even process but it is clear that the old relationships between the Crown and Iwi Māori, based on at best cursory adherence to Te Tiriti, are dying. What forms the new and the transition to the new will take are now the issues.

That’s how I think tangata tiriti should think about it. We are not ourselves a single group, any more than Iwi Māori, even under Kingi Tuheitia’s call for kotahitanga, are. Indeed our differences seem much larger in cultural and class terms alone. What are our relationships to be with the Crown (and should the form of the Crown itself change)?

If one is realistic, it is apparent that alongside and woven with the many inequities for Māori are inequities faced by those imprisoned by income and wealth, racial and other discriminations. Such people need also to be restating their position in the nation – and this is fully consistent with the core Iwi Māori assertions around Te Tiriti.

Rob Campbell, a former chair of Te Whatu Ora.

Each of these groups is also negatively affected by the way control of the nation, its economy and social structures have evolved under the old Crown. It is not possible to conceive of an acceptable outcome around Te Tiriti which did not also redefine those relationships – which of course, in the terms of Te Tiriti, were also to be experienced (by original intention enjoyed) by Māori.

So it’s a great time for groups in our nation like Pacific people, new migrants, working class and beneficiaries to be talking about what their realities and opportunities are in the journey from an old world dying to a new world emerging. Proposing solutions to their terms of deprivation and development. This would be profoundly democratic and productive. We should all be encouraging this.

This would not take away from but strengthen the process between Iwi Māori and the Crown by challenging many aspects of the Crown itself, how it operates and who it benefits. Most of us are not the Crown in practice any more than we are in the television series. We can make the Crown meet its obligations and change the Crown at the same time.

Toitu te Tiriti!

Rob Campbell is a professional director and investor. He is chancellor at AUT, chairman of Ara Ake, chairman of NZ Rural Land, and an adviser for Dave Letele’s BBM charity. He is also the former chairman of Te Whatu Ora (Health New Zealand). He is Ngāti Pākeha.