OPINION:
The first in a series of troublesome interviews for Christopher Luxon over the past 10 days probably gained the least attention but remains, in my view, the most revealing.
It took place between Luxon and broadcaster and national treasure Moana Maniapoto on her weekly Māori Television chat show Te Ao with Moana. It was a probing and wide-ranging discussion that's worth viewing in full, but there was one exchange in particular that I keep thinking about, finding myself more and more gobsmacked each time. It began with Moana seeking Luxon's understanding of the central tenets of Te Tiriti, namely kawanatanga (governorship) and rangatiratanga (sovereignty):
Maniapoto: Do you think that it's feasible that Māori would have ceded sovereignty?
Luxon: Well, that's ... I think we are one sovereign country ... article 1 of the Treaty, you know, that's what that's about.
Maniapoto: Te Tiriti.
Luxon: ... of the Treaty.
Maniapoto: Te Tiriti.
Luxon: Well, we have different interpretations.
Maniapoto: No, what is in Te Tiriti?
Luxon: Well, what I'm saying to you is, I think that that, you know, I'm looking at the articles ... the first article was really about ceding sovereignty - that we're one country ...
Maniapoto: No, it's not.
Luxon: ... the second article was about rangatiratanga, that the people can have ...
Maniapoto: So you're talking about the English text that was signed by about 50 people.
To the uninitiated, Maniapoto's repeated insistence on the term "Te Tiriti" may come across as if she's pressing him to use the Māori term for The Treaty of Waitangi, perhaps out of political correctness or cultural sensitivity. Of course, as becomes apparent, it's nothing of the sort. Maniapoto is simply clarifying her question by stressing "Te Tiriti", a kind of shorthand to let Luxon know she is referring to kawanatanga and rangatiratanga as spelt out in Māori language text.