Greens move to defend Maori sovereignty stand

By AUDREY YOUNG, political reporter

The Green Party has had some fast talking to do since Waitangi Day.

Its MPs have been hard on the case to explain their support for tino rangatiratanga, commonly expressed as Maori sovereignty.

The Greens have moved quickly since Wednesday, lest they frighten off less-dedicated supporters - people who flirt with the party through more popular issues such as genetic modification, globalisation, and pacifism.

Concepts of Maori sovereignty are not necessarily in the same comfort zones for people who agitate for the liberation of pigs from sow crates or more cash for possum eradication.

Co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons shies away from the term Maori sovereignty in a personal account of Waitangi Day written for the party's website.

"Many people find the use of the term 'Maori sovereignty' very frightening. I have heard it said that it means 'handing over everything to Maori'. That is certainly not my understanding of what is being asked for, but I prefer not to use the word until we have a shared understanding of what we mean by it."

Any debate on what the treaty meant must also include what it could not mean, she said.

"For example, it must not detract from ordinary home and farm ownership. Not only Pakeha, but also the majority of the Maori population, I suspect, would hold that view, as most Maori and their personal assets are now outside traditional tribal areas.

"But many people, especially elderly Pakeha, or people with little understanding of 'Maori rights issues' feel genuinely threatened, and such people must be included in the debate."

The term "tino rangatiratanga" is contained in article two of the Maori version of the Treaty of Waitangi, the version supported by the Greens.

It is not a new position, but it is a more visible one since Jeanette Fitzsimons and fellow MP Sue Bradford showed up behind the banners at Waitangi "in solidarity" with others - not to confront the Government, they say.

But it is a policy area that the Greens have decided to develop and promote more actively in election year. As Sue Bradford puts it: "We are only at the beginning of a long journey."

They say they support the Maori version over the English one because it is the version most of the chiefs signed and they did not sign away authority over their people or their resources.

In the widely accepted translation of the Maori version by Sir Hugh Kawharu, the chiefs handed over "government" of their land to the Crown but retain "unqualified exercise of their chieftainship over their lands, villages and all their treasures".

In the English version, the chiefs cede "all the rights and powers of sovereignty' and retain "undisturbed possession of their lands and estates, forests, fisheries and other properties" for as long as they wanted to retain them.

The Greens' treaty issues spokesman Nandor Tanczos explains his support for the Maori version: "Te Tiriti o Waitangi doesn't create the right of tino rangatiratanga. It simply recognises that it exists and will continue to exist. It's a recognition rather than a creation of a right.

"The Maori version of the treaty to me is about the fact that the Maori chiefs who signed the treaty did not sign away authority over their people or their resources. That was never given away by the Maori people.

"Clearly at the beginning of the 21st century the situation is very different to what it was in 1840. The Green Party is saying is we need to have nationwide discussion over how that is to be exercised in the 21st century.

"What I think we'll see over time is the development of political forms unique to Aotearoa New Zealand.

"I think we can come up with something that is truly a wonderful example for the rest of the world of how we can develop society."

Mana Motuhake leader and Alliance MP Willie Jackson commends the Greens for raising the issue, but asks how the party can support tino rangatiratanga when it opposes returning any of the conservation estate to tribes in treaty settlements.