The historic hīkoi that moved through Aotearoa last week was in response to the Treaty Principles Bill, brought to parliament by David Seymour, leader of the ACT Party and, from May next year, NZ’s deputy prime minister. Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer (Ngāti Ruahine, Ngāruahine, Ngā Rauru) writes an open letter to David about why this bill is such a betrayal for Māori, and why she believes he underestimated the response of New Zealanders.
Welcome to our new column, A Letter To… In the coming months some of our most well-known Kiwis and everyday heroes will be penning letters about a topic close to their hearts. Some of their names you will know very well, while others will be kept anonymous to protect the privacy of the subjects. Whether it is a letter to a specific someone, or a group of people, or simply an open letter to broach a difficult subject, each will be very different, but all will share one common thread: they will all be written from the heart. You can read our other letters here.
This is an opinion piece.
Dear David,
You never shied away from what your intention was with this bill, David. We had seen the arrival of the Treaty Principles Bill coming for a while – even before Act’s election campaign. We could see on the horizon how things were playing out across the world, in terms of indigenous rights, like The Voice vote in Australia.
We had hoped that National’s own relationship with Te Tiriti, and iwi, and Māori, had meant they wouldn’t go there. But once we saw how close the numbers were on election day, once we sensed the desperation, we knew this was coming. We saw the winding back of the Māori health authority as only the start. And once we saw the wording of the bill, we felt the horror that we would not only have to fight this bill, but that we would have to defend our very existence as indigenous peoples. And that’s a battle that we haven’t had to fight in a very long time.
I’m only the third generation born since the confiscation era, the muru raupatu era as we call it, in Taranaki. It was my grandfather’s father, my kōkō’s dad, who was caught up in that and survived being imprisoned without trial as passive resistance when he was just 16. Those of us who have survived such brutal confiscation know full well the weight of the power that corporate entities have when they slice through your life, without the blink of an eye, and then you spend two to three generations trying to recover from that.
The line you use, David, about equal rights is a compelling one. I understand what you mean by that – the idea that we should all be treated equally – and I agree with it in theory. In a perfect world. But in reality, we don’t all arrive at the new day and the new dawn, equally. Some arrive with baggage and trauma and lack of equity so damn heavy that it holds us back for generations. And to then wipe out Te Tiriti, to wipe out the reference to our sovereign, our chiefs, is effectively wiping out our ability to ever live equally. It is a betrayal.
As politicians, we know we have to move beyond the fear-based tactics that are being used around this bill. We have to confront that and basically sell courage, instead. The hikoi that moved through the country last week wasn’t just about the Treaty Principles bill, it was about unity. It was about giving strength and heart to the courage that is needed in this moment.
We know what we’re up against. We know that this is a David and Goliath moment for our country. But I really believe in Aotearoa and in New Zealanders – and I say New Zealanders, because not everybody understands that they’re Tangata Tiriti, and that absolute honour they also have to live under Te Tiriti. But we are all, collectively, going to have to protect the culture of Aotearoa.
That’s what is at play here; it’s not Māori culture – we just happen to be in the way. It’s the culture and the balance of how we want Aotearoa’s future to be. Do we want our country to be an elite island, run by the hyper wealthy, owned by corporations that will exploit us? Or do we want to continue to be the country that punches above our weight – the country where women were able to vote first, where we were anti-nukes, where we are anti-discrimination. We have a duty to continue that work.
And this is where I think you underestimated the response, David. I think you underestimated the support of non-Māori, in particular. On the social media platforms of Te Pati Māori, we had seen the rise of this. We knew that people weren’t happy with the Fast Track bill, and we knew that nobody wanted to see divisive politics in Aotearoa. We’re not America – nobody likes to see the underdog being kicked here. I think you radically underestimated that there would be such empathy for indigenous people in this kaupapa.
And I think your messaging has reached its peak, David. Because there is only ever one kind of person that comes up against us in the Treaty space, and that’s someone who is doing very well for themselves. It’s not used against Joe Bloggs from down the road. This Treaty Bill is about protecting the status quo for those who are doing very well.
It’s not about giving rights to other people; it’s about taking the rights away from Māori to be recognised as indigenous. I don’t know of any extra rights I have as Māori, but I know that I have extra obligations. That’s what Te Tiriti looks like on the ground – protection for this country. You are trying to interfere with the last of our bastions, for capitalist reasons and you know and I know that is a twilight setting, economically.
With this hikoi, Māori were able to show the wider world what we have been contending with. The global move against indigenous rights, and the big, scary concepts that are discussed as part of this Treaty Bill simply don’t work here – we are too small, too connected. Most people here in some way know a Māori community – and they’re not the Debbies and the Rawiris in the politics, they’re the nannies, the kōkōs, the aunties who come along and bring the scones to church.
They’re people like my dad, who is the community volunteer for basically everything. Everyone knows someone, and they’re looking at this bill, thinking ‘I don’t feel good about what’s going on here.’ I think there is a real desire to live in peace and harmony among all these different communities. And I think you underestimated that.
To enter a submission to the Treaty Principles Bill, visit here
