Kōrero

"People often think that you know Māori are just sitting on the shore waiting for Abel Tasman or James Cook to turn up but that's certainly not the case."

Speakers

Vincent O'Malley, Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, Anne Salmond, Haami Piripi, Mānuka Hēnare.

"Ki a au nei he kaupapa nui te Tiriti o Waitangi. He kaupapa i tūhonohono i ngā iwi o Aotearoa."

Speakers

Rahiri Wharerau, Leah Bell, Hinepounamu Apanui-Barr, Ngahuia Piripi, Sonny Ngatai, Whitu-Waiariki, Dai Henwood and Ngāti Kawa Taituha.

"Our independence is our main aim. We feel there is more value in our independence than sovereignty..."

Speakers

Dr Claudia Orange DNZM, Prof Rawinia Higgins, Dawn Mason-Lawrence, Moana Jackson and Dr Cybèle Locke.

"For such a tiny country in the world... we led by believing a woman has her own thoughts different to those of a man."

Speakers

Prof Charlotte Macdonald, Prof Marilyn Waring, Mihingarangi Forbes, Prof Rawinia Higgins and Dr Jackie Blue.

"It's your right to be able to make sure that you have a voice..."

Speakers

Sina Wendt-Moore, Hon Lianne Dalziel, Tayyaba Khan, Lana West and Jenny Harper.

"We can't forget what, what happened to the indigenous people of these islands."

Speakers

Hone Mihaka, Hon Justice Matthew Palmer, QC, Miria Pomare, Dr Vincent O'Malley, Moana Jackson, Te Radar and Rt Hon Sir Geoffrey Palmer.

"The lesson of the women's suffrage movement was it was actually a movement of all ordinary women."

Speakers

Dame Ann Hercus, Prof Katie Pickles, Jenny Harper, and Hon Lianne Dalziel.

"So what I think is amazing about the petition is that there were over 32,000 thousand women...did something that they felt was so important."

Speakers

Hon Lianne Dalziel, Vanisa Dhiru, Kirsten Thomlinson, Prof Katie Pickles, and Dr Arini Loader.

"The world has changed. Maybe what’s also changed is our Māori way of thinking."

Speakers

Zaeana Thomson, Waitana Sullivan, Rahiri Wharerau, Sonny Ngatai, Dr Mike Ross and Prof Rawinia Higgins.

"That perhaps is my greatest hope, my fervent wish for that type of unity. Maybe it's a dream."

Speakers

Prof Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Evelyn Tobin, MNZM, JP, Dr Cybèle Locke, Mihingarangi Forbes, Miss Kihi Ririnui and Dr Claudia Orange, DNZM.

"And so it's trying to learn off Māori what it means to be at home in this place, what it means to be connected to the land, what does it mean to be connected to flow of the, of the spirit of this place."

Speakers

Oscar Kightley, Te Radar, Rt Rev Justin Duckworth and King Kapisi.

"Why in this beautiful land that is the tangata whenua...why do we not have a Māori Prime Minister."

Speakers

Nicky Hager, Oscar Kightley, King Kapisi, Prof Mānuka Hēnare, Hone Mihaka, Steve Hansen and Rt Rev Justin Duckworth.

"Iwi and hapu were independent entities so that Ngapuhi made decisions for Ngapuhi, Ngati Whatua made decisions for Ngati Whatua and no one could impinge on that independence."

Speakers

Hone Mihaka, Moana Jackson and Prof Mānuka Hēnare.

"Regardless of who is here Māori would never go away. It will always be here on this land, it's been here for for a long time and it will continue to to be here."

Speakers

Ngāti Kawa Taituha, Ngahiwi Apanui, Prof Dame Anne Salmond, Judge Carrie Wainwright, Shamubeel Eaqub and Rt Rev Justin Duckworth.

"I think you can understand the present situation better if you understand the past."

Speakers

Hon Justice Matthew Palmer, QC, Witi Ihimaera and Dr Claudia Orange, DNZM.

"The Crown wears many hats, its not just the crown on the head of the Queen, it is in a sense the government and how do you distinguish the crown from the government."

Speakers

Rt Hon Sir Geoffrey Palmer and Rt Hon Dame Sian Elias.

"If we limit ourselves to us alone our language will die. How then can we enshrine it in the hearts of everyone? It can’t be just us, by ourselves."

Speakers

Anton O'Carroll, Prof Rawinia Higgins, Evelyn Tobin, MNZM, JP, Hon Meng Foon, Judge Carrie Wainwright and Ngahiwi Apanui.

"Those very early framers of the Treaty didn't expect to displace Māori society at all. They were looking to set up settlements around the coast in quite small areas."

Speakers

Rt Hon Dame Sian Elias, Prof Mānuka Hēnare, Haami Piripi, Dr David Williams and Prof Dame Anne Salmond.

"I think it's important to see He Whakaputanga as, as in a sense a precondition to the Treaty because you can only treat, you can only enter into a treaty relationship if you have the political and constitutional and independent capacity to do so."

Speakers

Moana Jackson and Prof Mānuka Hēnare.

"And our ancestors were in a real strong position you know we had all the rights prior to the Treaty, we had the rights to the land, resources pretty much everything."

Speakers

Dai Henwood, Ngāti Kawa Taituha, Evelyn Tobin, MNZM, JP, Prof Mānuka Hēnare, Dr Donald Brash, Katie Woolfe and Prof Michael Belgrave.

"The conversation that we are having right here, the stories that we are capturing right here are cementing and making sure that we don't lose that whakapapa, the shoulders of those that we stand upon."

Speakers

Lana West and Sina Wendt-Moore.

"The treaty is fundamental because it establishes that interdependence, which is such a fundamental corollary of our understanding of independence."

Speakers

Moana Jackson, Dr Donald Brash and Prof Dame Anne Salmond.

"It was a very brave document, it was an attempt to set up a new, a new world really."

Speakers

Dame Joan Metge, Moana Jackson, Stefanie Lash, Rt Hon Dame Sian Elias, Dr David Williams and Dr Claudia Orange, DNZM.

"If we want New Zealand to be a gender equal country we need to overcome barriers that are on the list of issues such as pay equity, violence, education."

Speakers

Lana West, Angela Bloomfield, Vanisa Dhiru, Miria Pomare and Prof Linda Tuhiwai Smith.

"Part of what the Declaration of Independence does is it provides a statement to the rest of the world that Māori are exercising their independence and authority and part of that is their own system of government and law."

Speakers

Dr Donald Brash, Dr Carwyn Jones, Hon Justice Matthew Palmer, QC and Prof Dame Anne Salmond.

"If political leaders are going to exclude women or ignore them they do so at their own peril and they will fail. Women are a powerful voting block."

Speakers

Prof Marilyn Waring, Leah Bell, Prof Ngahuia Te Awekotuku and Dr Jackie Blue.

"It is much harder for female novelists, female writers to be taken seriously than it is for for male novelists still."

Speakers

Katie Woolfe, Rt Hon Dame Sian Elias, Eleanor Catton and Mai Chen.

"The intent by the missionaries was probably pure, but post 1840 was a huge influx of immigrants from Europe and from Britain in particular. That intent fell away and the cross was replaced by the sword."

Speakers

Dr Claudia Orange, DNZM, Prof Dame Anne Salmond, Prof Michael Belgrave, Dr Vincent O'Malley and Haami Piripi.

"The person who had the authority in our hapu to sign, the ariki with the mana, the mandate, if you like, to sign, was a women called Hine Aka Tioke, and so she said or someone said on her behalf this is who will sign for us."

Speakers

Moana Jackson.

"Māori themselves experimenting with new forms of governance because in the process of welcoming Pākehā to New Zealand they are also experiencing problems and issues for the first time ever."

Speakers

Kate Martin, Prof Dame Anne Salmond, Dr Vincent O'Malley, Dr Claudia Orange, DNZM and Prof Michael Belgrave.

"Words like mana were absolutely and utterly central to understanding, Māori understandings, that they were recognised in 1835 of having independence, chiefly mana, over these islands."

Speakers

Prof Mānuka Hēnare, Rt Hon Dame Sian Elias, Prof Michael Belgrave, Dr Donald Brash, Dr Cybèle Locke and Haami Piripi.

You cannot renounce your own historical heritage and so that is why the Treaty is central to New Zealand's constitution arrangements whether its recognised in the courts or whether it isn't."

Speakers

Rt Hon Dame Sian Elias, Rt Hon Sir Geoffrey Palmer and Mai Chen.

"I think that the reason why Pakeha people mispronounce the Māori language is because they totally disrespect us, otherwise they would pronounce it correctly, if they respected us they would."

Speakers

Haami Piripi, Oscar Kightley, Dr Vincent O'Malley and Dai Henwood.

"Our constitution evolves with political developments, it is a political constitution and it has very few firm anchors."

Speakers

Rt Hon Sir Geoffrey Palmer, Moana Jackson, Rt Hon Dame Sian Elias, Dr Carwyn Jones and Hon Justice Matthew Palmer, QC.

"Recognition of the Treaty itself by 1975, fully in 1985, protests, actions, the beginnings of settlements, have seen us all grow in our understanding."

Speakers

Dr Donald Brash, Mihingarangi Forbes, Prof Michael Belgrave, Hon Justice Matthew Palmer, QC and Kate Martin.

"I think women right from the arrival on these shores have been critical to Māori development to who we are as a society".

Speakers

Prof Dame Anne Salmond, Evelyn Tobin, MNZM, JP, Miria Pomare, Prof Linda Tuhiwai Smith and Prof Ngahuia Te Awekotuku.

"I would just like the young women of today to know how much we older women are looking to them with confidence and with love."

Speakers

Rt Hon Dame Sian Elias, Evelyn Tobin, MNZM, JP, Prof Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, Mihingarangi Forbes and Angela Bloomfield.

"We always say in New Zealand that the Treaty always speaks, it speaks today as it did 150 years ago."

Speakers

Steve Hansen, Judge Carrie Wainwright, Kate Martin, Rt Hon Sir Geoffrey Palmer, Hon Meng Foon, Dr Mike Ross, Evelyn Tobin, MNZM, JP and Steve Maina.

"If you take one step back even more important than the right to vote is how you are respected and valued within your community in your society."

Speakers

Hana O'Regan and Dr Arini Loader.

"By settling an allegation which they've agreed is justified, that the Crown breached the Treaty of Waitangi, they are enabling both the Crown and Māori to get over that breakdown in the past."

Speakers

Moana Jackson, Rt Hon Dame Sian Elias, Judge Carrie Wainwright, Prof Marilyn Waring, Hon Justice Matthew Palmer, QC and Dr Claudia Orange, DNZM.

"I think we all owe it to ourselves and to each other to remind ourselves that we still have a lot to learn..."

Speakers

Nicky Hager, Dai Henwood, Steve Hansen and Michael Galvin.

"We have a history in which women have the vote earliest and we are proud of that. We constantly want, I think many of us sort of live up to the ideal of what it, it represented. So that continues to be something we talk about. It might often be an ideal that we feel we're not quite fulfilling."

Speakers

Katie Woolfe, Prof Charlotte Macdonald, Dr Claudia Orange, DNZM and Prof Linda Tuhiwai Smith.

"The relationship we have with history needs to be a conversation I think, it needs to be a, a kind of a constant questioning of what does this mean for us now."

Speakers

Te Radar, Eleanor Catton and Oscar Kightley.

"So basically violence and squandering, desertion, all sorts of associated miserable outcomes of alcohol were felt at the time so temperance was about a more moderate life that didn't have that extreme."

Speakers

Kirsten Thomlinson, Judy McAnulty, Tania Rangiheuea, Prof Katie Pickles and Annette Paterson.

"I think there are really important lessons going on for young people today to sort of think about how people would've organised themselves in the past and how that can translate into their lives, it's great."

Speakers

Hana O'Regan, Kirsten Thomlinson, Hon Lianne Dalziel, Dame Ann Hercus, DCMG and Vanisa Dhiru.

"I feel very comfortable living in a country which is a country of migrants."

Speakers

Mai Chen, Nicky Hager, Vanisa Dhiru, Te Radar, Shamubeel Eaqub and Steve Maina.

"There has been this, this long time where there has been this disconnection from the land, their cultural starting point, the frame of economic thinking is entirely different from the western capitalist form that we use today."

Speakers

Moana Jackson, Haami Piripi, Ngahiwi Apanui, Shamubeel Eaqub and Dr Tom Roa.

"Though it's really important I think for us New Zealanders to get a grasp on the significance of that original understanding of 1840."

Speakers

Rt Hon Sir Geoffrey Palmer, Prof Dame Anne Salmond and Dr Claudia Orange, DNZM.

"When I think of the Treaty of Waitangi I think of the wharenui and the treaty being the poutokomanawa - being the strongest foundation of our whare or our nation."

Speakers

Tame Iti, Mihingarangi Forbes, Rt Rev Justin Duckworth, Witi Ihimaera and Katie Woolfe.

"Forgotten. The life needs to, the life needs to be put back into these documents, yeah!"

Visitor kōrero from the recording booth at the He Tohu exhibition.