E oho! How New Zealanders commemorate Waitangi Day 2021

Speakers

Hugh Karena, Paul Meredith, Kura Moeahu, Sam Carpenter, Rawinia Higgins

Karakia

Hugh Karena: Kia ora tātou, nau mai, haere mai ki roto tō tātou nei hui i pā ana ki a Waitangi i tēnei ahiahi. Nō reira, nau mai, nau mai, whakatau mai.

We will just start with karakia. I'll do a brief mihi to welcome us, and then I will hand it over to Tanja and co to lead us into our panel discussion today about Waitangi. So could we put up the karakia, please? And then if we could all stand to do karakia together. That will be the whānau way of doing it. Okay.

Whakataka te hau ki te uru,
Whakataka te hau ki te tonga.

Kia makinakina ki uta,
Kia mataratara ki tai.

E hi ake ana te atakura
he tio, he huka, he hauhunga.

Tīhei, mauriora!

Ko Ahumairangi ki runga, ko Te Whanganui-a-Tara ki raro, ko tātou i tēnei huihuinga ki waenganui, nō reira nau mai nau mai haere mai ki tēnei papakāinga o Pipitea i tēnei rā. Mihi kau ana ki tā tātou nei maunga, ngā mihi hoki ki tā tātou nei wai e tiaki e manaaki i a tātou i tēnei wā. Huri rauna ngā mihi ki te mana whenua e tiaki ana te ahi kā roa ki runga i tēnei whenua e manaaki hoki i te mauri o tēnei wāhi. Nō reira Kura, Peter, koutou o te mana whenua i roto o tā tātou nei huihuinga, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa.

Ahakoa nō hea ahakoa nō wai, kua heke, ku taka ētahi o ngā kaumātua, o ngā kuia, ngā tāngata ki runga i ēnā marae, i ēnā marae puta noa i tā tātou nei motu, nō reira ngā mihi hoki ki a rātou kua mene ki te pō, kua haere ki tua te ārai, mai i ia marae, ia marae, ia wāhi, ia wāhi, ia hapū, ia iwi, ia whānau, haere, haere, haere atu rā. E kore tātou e warewaretia i a koutou me wā koutou nei tākoha ki a mātou engari haere, haere, haere ki roto i te okiokinga roa o ngā tini tāngata.

Engari kia whakahoki ki roto i tō tātou whakaminenga i tēnei rā, tēnā tātou, tēnā tātou, tēnā tātou katoa. Nau mai haramai ngā manuhiri kua tau mai ki te awhi ki te tautoko i tā tātou kaupapa i tēnei rā, tēnei take nui o Waitangi, me ngā kaikōrero kua tae mai ki te whakapoipoi, ki te whakawhiriwhiri i ēnei ngā whakaaro, ngā kōrero e pā ana ki tā tātou nei take i tēnei wā. Nō reira koutou kua haere mai ki te awhi ki te tautoko, Sam, Rā, ki a koe anō hoki Kura, kua haere mai ki te whakatakoto kaupapa e pā ana ki tā tātou taonga nui o Te Tiriti o Waitangi, nau mai, nau mai, haere mai. Mihi kau ana tēnei mai i Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa me Te Rua Mahara a te Kāwanatanga me tā tātou nei tari a Te Tari Taiwhenua, ngā kaitiaki, ngā kaipupuri o tā tātou nei taonga o He Whakaputanga, Te Tiriti o Waitangi me te Petihana Whakamana Pōti Wahine. Nō reira he mihi aroha tēnei, he mihi atawhai, he mihi tiaki ki a koutou kua haere mai ki te awhi ki te tautoko i a tātou ki roto i tā tātou nei kaupapa i tēnei rā.

Tēnā koe Stefan, kua haere mai, mai i Te Tari o Heamana, ki roto i a Pōneke nei, me ngā rangatira katoa kei roto i tā tātou huihuinga i tēnei rā. Tēnā tātou, tēnā tātou, kia ora hoki tātou katoa.

Waiata

Kōkiri, kōkiri, kōkiri
Whakarongo ake au Ki ngā reo o te motu
E karanga mai ana Huakina Huakina te whare e
Ka oti ka oti ngā mahi e
Haere mai e te iwi Kkia piri tāua kia kite atu ai
Ngā kupu whakairi e
Ēnei ngā wāriu O ngā mahi tuhinga Hei mahi ketuketu
Ngā whakaaro rerekē Ko hanga whakatū
Ngā ariā ki te iwi
E kore e mimiti
He puna wairua e He puna wai-rua e

Hugh Karena: Nō reira āpiti hono tātai hono rātou te hunga mate ki a rātou, haere ki te okiokinga roa o ngā tini tāngata. Āpiti hono tātai hono, tātou ki roto i tā tātou huihuinga i tēnei rā kua haere mai ki te tautoko i tēnei kaupapa o tātou, tēnā tātou, tēnā tātou, kia ora hoki tātou katoa.

Introduction — Doctor Tanja Schubert-McArthur

Tanja Schubert-McArthur: Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou katoa. Welcome, everybody. Nau mai, haere mai ki Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa Welcome to the National Library. My name is Dr. Tajia Schubert-McArthur. I'm a learning facilitator here, and I'm also the organiser of this exciting series called E Oho! the Waitangi series 2021.

And today is the launch, so we not only have fabulous speakers here on film screening, but we also have kids’ activities outside. And there will be refreshments after the event that you're very welcome to stay on for. E Oho! The Waitangi Series aims at understanding the foundations of Aotearoa New Zealand.

He Whakaputanga and Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the Treaty of Waitangi are founding documents. These documents are at the core of who we are as a nation. Many of us are just beginning our journey to learn, understand, and apply the principles and values that are embedded in the fabric of our collective identity.

Today is the launch, and we are trying to create a safe space here to ask questions to discuss how Aotearoa is grappling with the legacy of these documents. We aspire to lift the veil on history of how and why these documents came to be, to illuminate a pathway of learning and knowledge sharing from the past to the future. He whakapapa kōrero, he whenua kura. E Oho! Means awake, arise, rear up, but also fruitful and productive, so trying to be all of that.

And in the series, we aim to lay the foundations for all people living in New Zealand by exploring key events in history that shaped the nation we call home. This series is for everyone, featuring an amazing line-up of speakers from diverse backgrounds-- experts, artists, activists, comprising a range of performances, screenings, workshops, and public talks.

The programme for each event entails those inspiring talks and the opportunity to kōrero further afterwards. So how it works is we'll do the film screening, and we'll get into the presentations and the panel discussion. If you have to leave at 1:00 o'clock, that's fine. We'll give you time to leave. And if you would like to stay on and discuss any aspect of what you've heard today further, we can do that in a more intimate setting. And we'll ask the people who are here to come close on and have the discussion.

So I also have put a question on the table outside near the arts and craft area that in case you have any ideas for topics or speakers you would like to see here at the National Library, you can just leave a note and write your comments on.

So welcome again. And we'll start with a film screening now.

Introducing speakers — Paul Meredith

Paul Meredith: Kia ora tātou. Tautoko e ngā mihi kua mihia. My name is Paul Meredith. I work at Ngā Taonga. And I'm old enough to remember that speech. I actually made contact with his son, as the kaitiaki of that particular speech to see if we could get their permission to share that and he-- his response was absolutely in his family very much see that speech as an opportunity to educate not just those people in that time but future generations. So I'm glad that we're able to share it.

Actually, I remember interviewing Reverend Whakahuihui not too long after. And you could just feel the presence of his mana. But when you watched it, it's interesting to think about how far we've come. And some of us would think, yes, we have come quite far. And others would suggest that we haven't.

So today, we are privileged to have three great speakers to reflect on and to consider and to maybe challenge our own thinking about how New Zealanders should celebrate or commemorate, challenge, understand Waitangi, and particularly on Waitangi Day. I was recently asked, and I was interviewed for a blog, and we were talking about the Treaty of Waitangi.

And I was asked: What are you doing on Waitangi Day? And I actually had to admit that I'm going to take the kids to the Otaki Kite Festival. But then I recovered myself by saying, well, actually, there's not a day that doesn't go by when them don't think about the Treaty of Waitangi.

I'll just introduce our speakers. Our first speaker really doesn't need any introduction. He's very much well-known around the city. He is the chair of Te Atiawa Rūnanga. He is very knowledgeable and well-known for his knowledge for tikanga Māori, te reo Māori. He is the Tumuwhakarae of ParliamentKura Moeahu, nau mai, haere mai!

[APPLAUSE]

Our next speaker is Sam Carpenter. And he's a founder and trustee of the Karuwhā Trust. I've just been reading about that, and say I know that he's going to be giving us a presentation on that. But more importantly, he just recently submitted his PhD. And so we congratulate you on that, SamNau mai, haere mai. And then, of course, our final speaker is Professor Rawinia Higgins, who also is well known as the chair of the Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori vice-chancellor of Victoria University, although here she's actually acting vice-chancellor and was formerly my boss. So Nau mai, haere mai.

[APPLAUSE]

So now I'd like to invite Kura, could he just come up here for a few words?

Speaker 1 — Kura Moeahu

Kura Moeahu: Arā tēnā tātou e whakarauika mai nei kei raro i te tāhūhū o tēnei whare. Oti anō rā nau mai haramai e Hugh e Te Aupōuri, ā, e Te Hiku o te Ika, arā ngā kaitiaki o Te Tiriti o Waitangi nei rā te mihi atu rā ki a koe, i whakatau ake ki a mātou, ki a tātou i haere mai ki te whakarongo ki tēnei momo kōrero.

Big question, eh? How do we-- how do New Zealanders commemorate it? And excuse me. I've been standing here and get a little bit of cramp. I had a bit of a workout this morning, and now I do feel the impact of it. Well, and so it's a million question: How do New Zealanders commemorate?

And so I'm trying to figure it out. How do you play with this toy? Oh, here we go. In a nutshell, as a child, I never knew too much about Waitangi Day. We just saw it as a holiday. Why? Because it wasn't taught to us in schools.

The significance of the Treaty of Waitangi and the impact of it was never told. It wasn't until I left college that I started to become radical because I learned all this information. That kind of got me angry.

And you're scratching yourself, why weren't we taught this in school? This is the history that we need. And so, if you look in the past, over the years, media has had a lot to play in terms of how New Zealanders have commemorated Waitangi Day, particularly if you look up in just this corner here.

They've kind of portrayed it as a day of protest, and media has had a lot to do with it, and portray who we as Māori are. And then over the years-- can I just have a show of hands? How many were at Waitangi Day in 1990?

[ INAUDIBLE]

I was there. I just happened to be there as part of one of the Kaikohe celebrations. But the speech had a huge impact. Unfortunately, we couldn't get onto the grounds. But they had speakers rightthroughout Waitangi. And the roar, not only on the grounds, the roar when Huihui Vercoe was giving his speech went right throughout the tents. And it was an amazing speech. And we thought, well, it's out there.

So the question is, how do we celebrate and commemorate Waitangi Day? There's a whole lot of celebrations happening now throughout the country, and I think that is really great to see. It's brought about a lot more awareness of who we are. And Waitangi Day is one of a number of celebrations that we should be looking at.
Waitangi Day itself is the start as the Bishop mentioned, of a compact or contract. Whatever you may want to call it. But it was a start of a partnership and a relationship. I believe that on the day it was signed, the intentions were honourable.

Te Rā o te Raukura

I think the Treaty of Waitangi is an honourable document. It's the people from generation to generation. There's a challenge that-- so how do we commemorate Waitangi here in Te Ātiawa? We have a day in our annual year, in fact, two days in our annual year where we actually celebrate it. And that day is called Te Rā o te Raukura.

One of our biggest days that we have out at Te Whiti Pā. When we get to celebrate who we are, I tell Maori. And it is a whanau day. It is about bringing people together. And the principles of Te Raukura are actually based on unending glory to God on high, peace on Earth, and goodwill to all men.

And we get large groups of people coming to that particular day. Unfortunately, this year, the committee have decided not to hold Te Rā o te Raukura due to COVID. And they made that decision in November for unforeseen circumstances. So they've actually replaced it with a week-long virtual celebrations for Te Rā o Te Raukura I'm getting out into the communities and putting that on Te Ātiawa Toa FM.

The day of the signing

But another significant day that we as Te Ātiawa celebrate is this day, the 29th of April. The 29th of April is the day that the Treaty of Waitangi was actually signed here in Wellington. And how do we, as an iwi, start to celebrate and commemorate this particular day as well? The 6th of February is the initial start for the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. And from that point on, I went around the country. For of us here, Te Ātiawa, this is a significant day for us.

And we have had some wonderful relationships with the library about how we celebrated on this particular day. We had a whanau education day. And it all looked about of who we were. And so, just in saying that, how many Europeans actually signed the Treaty of Waitangi?

Food for thought. How many chiefs signed the Māori Vision? More food for thought. How many signed in Wellington? And that's where the interest for us is in Wellington. How many of our chiefs actually signed?

And there were a number of 34. I've just taken this cut and paste from National Library, a total of 34 chiefs that actually signed. And how do we commemorate all of them? How do we acknowledge all of them?

I am just one of many of as a direct descendant of one of the signatories. And here's a challenge I'd like for each and every one of the whanau in here is in the Women's Refuge, as the women's suffrage petition. There's hundreds and something names. How many of you can actually whakapapa yourself on one of those signatories? One at the back there, two.

And you see that it gives a sense of pride when you see a name and that you have a whakapapa tied to it. And for those that signed the Treaty of Waitangi, and particularly for me, there's number four. Kahe Te Rau o te Rangi was one of very few women that signed it. And so how do we commemorate that? And when you see the name to the Woman's Suffrage, to He Whakaputanga or the Treaty of Waitangi, there's a sense of pride and obligation that we have.

34 signed. Of those, I've broken it down in terms of those 34. They said that they were either one of these iwi. Now the last one is interesting because I saw, well, Te Arawa. I'm not too sure whether that was an error, but that's what it has on the particular document.

And so we managed to break it down into hapū, as well. And so there are many ways that we need to commemorate. But if we're going to look into the future for the next 19 years, people will say, we've only got 19 years to fix it before we celebrate the bicentennial celebrations.

We're going to need a lot more than 19 years. We'll need, maybe, 119. But let's make a start: E oho! Maranga!. Let's make a start, collectively, together.

And let's be realistic. There are some at one extreme that say the Treaty has never been honoured. At the other extreme there are some that say, well we're all one people. And there are a lot of people like you and I that are going like this (looking from side to side).

E oho. Let's educate. E oho. Let's learn E oho. Let's learn about the stories of the local region that people reside in.

And maybe that is the next phase, because we have heard the story of the Treaty of Waitangi on the 6th of February in 1840. Maybe it's time to hear the story of the Treaty of Waitangi in Port Nicholson Block, Wellington Te Whanganui-a-Tara, on the 29th of April, 1840.

Nō reira, kāore i te kūmea roa. I just want to leave you with that. But these are some of the three of the 34 that signed the Treaty of Waitangi. Te Wharepouri, Hōniana Te Puni, and Te Tarenga Kuri, or Te Kāeaea.

And the goal is, for us, to try to find photos of those others, or whether there are paintings in some of the historical we've managed to collate the history of the 34 that signed. But how do we celebrate all of them?

One of the things that, on his deathbed, Hōniana Te Puni said, take care of my Pākehā friends. I think we've done pretty well. I think the patai is now is, how do you take care of your Māori partner? Inequities.

And so I'm going to leave you with that. And so there's a long way to go. And whatever shape, form, or size, here's the challenge for you to commemorate Waitangi Day. Let's start learning, and let's start educating.
E oho. E maranga. And let's learn something different about the Treaty of Waitangi, and let's celebrate it. Ka pai? Nō reira, tēnā koutou. Kia ora tatou.

[APPLAUSE]

Paul Meredith: Kia ora koe, e Kura! I think that's a couple of important challenges for us, there. Particularly in the context of our revision of our New Zealand curriculum, and thinking about local histories. So that's, ngā mihi ki ā koe. Now I'd like to invite Sam up. Kia ora koe Sam.

Speaker 2 — Samuel Carpenter

Sam Carpenter: Kia ora tātou katoa. Ka nui te mihi ki te rangatira, kua mihia. Ka nui te mihi ki a korua, kia koutou te kaikōrero i te ahiahi nei.

Tēnā koutou. Kia ora mai tātou katoa.
Ko Pukekoe te maunga
Ko Waikato te awa
Ko Bombay te waka
Ko Ngāi Te Tiriti
Ko Ngāti Pākehā te iwi
Ko Samuel Carpenter tōku ingoa
Kia ora tātou katoa

Now how do I get to my presentation? Tanja? Oh yeah, sweet. And a mihi also, to Tanja, the kaiwhakahaere for this event.

Kia ora, Tanja.

So being a Pākehā, I've got a prepared text, which I'm going to read, and some slides. This year I will make the journey north to the Bay of Islands for Waitangi commemorations at Waitangi. I will be going with my spouse and four children. Quite a big undertaking from Wellington, flying to Auckland, and jumping in a car.

When I first went to Waitangi, I certainly had no wife or children. It was the year 2000. I had been studying New Zealand history at Auckland University as part of a law and arts conjoint degree. And I had stumbled upon a biography of the missionary, Henry Williams.

Quite an old biography now, which had nevertheless opened new vistas on our past, along with all the other stuff I was learning. But this was quite a significant find for me.

I'd also been studying the Treaty at law school. So lots of issues. Lots of questions, including about the intertwining of the Christian story and the Treaty story, and the islands of New Zealand.

What was Waitangi Day at Waitangi actually like?

And just simply a question, what we refer to, today. What was Waitangi Day at Waitangi actually like? Not how the media portrayed it?

So I got two younger brothers on board. Ben and Joel. We packed camping gear and headed north from Pukekohe in my 1982 Ford Laser hatchback. Green. That first Waitangi, for me, was perhaps the most significant.

We camped at Te Tii marae campground in the days when it was covered with sleeping tents, as well as marketplace stalls. And it occurred to me, many years later, that we were actually camping right beside-- I don't know how we got the spot-- Te Tau Rangatira, raised mound-- sorry-- a raised mound.

On the Te Tii site, we were rangatiramet on the night of the 5th of February, 1840, to further discuss the Treaty presented that day by Captain Hobson at the Busby residence across the Waitangi River.

Now at that time-- not 1840-- in the year 2000, my brothers were definitely an ethnic minority. I would say there were barely 5% of people at Te Tii that weren't Māori. This was still an era of big political debatetents at Te Tii.

One picture that has stayed with me was Mike Smith-- the man who, you may recall, took an axe to the one tree on Maungakiekie, One Tree Hill-- speaking from the lectern, in a debate tent, from a laptop.

And that day-- this was in the days when many people didn't have PCs, let alone laptops-- and I recall that he sounded like the voice of reason, speaking carefully, and with conviction.

This was also, still, the era of larger political rallies and marches as at Waitangi, which, in my perspective, have much lessened in recent years. In 2000, we still had the Foreshore and Seabed to come, of course, but there was a fairly large contingent that marched from the Lower Marae up to the Upper Marae.
And for whatever reason, my younger brother, Joel, who was barely 17 at the time, decided that he'd joined the march. And Joel is now an Anglican vicar, so that's what you get when you go to Waitangi.

[LAUGHTER]

Recently appointed at Glen Innes and his whanau will be joining us this year. At this first year at Waitangi, I also tracked down a descendant of Henry Williams.

For those of you not aware, the leading Church Missionary Society missionary in 1840, and translator of the Treaty from the English draft in to the Māori text. And that Māori text was, of course, the text that most of the 500 Aotearoa signed on the nine Treaty sheets that travelled around the country.

So how did I find Elizabeth? I went to the Williams Memorial Church at Paihia, and I asked someone if there were any Williams descendants around. And so somebody told me where Elizabeth lived. And I turned up at her house. Knocked on the door.

Elizabeth Ludbrook is an amazing lady who grew up in Taiamai orOhaeawai, inland Bay of Islands. She grew up with the stories of Henry Williams Tupuna. In her adult life, though, she'd been on her own journey of discovery and research.

And she began to tell us these stories, in her little whare there. And it just seemed, to me, like history was alive and reverberating in the room. And I was moved by quite a few particular stories that she told.

So enough of the year 2000. Since then, I've returned to Waitangi for most commemorations. The year following, I took a small group with me. And the core of this group created a charitable trust in 2005 to support the Waitangi pilgrimages, and other purposes around history and Treaty education.

So the Karuwhā Trust is now 15 years old. Now Karuwhā means four eyes. Karu-whā, or whā-karu, after Henry Williams who wore spectacles. A name he was given, obviously, by Māori. So we saw, or see, her story as, I suppose, a representative story of the wider story of Maori Mission and Kāwanatanga that became interwoven in these decades.

So the small group in 2001 grew slowly, rising to a few dozen adults about four years ago. Since then, we've experienced amazing growth in numbers. At the last three years, we've had around 140, 150 adults, plus tamariki, and our places this year were booked out within days for this coming Waitangi.

What do we do at Waitangi?

So what do we do? What do we actually do up at Waitangi? We do a whole range of things. To begin with, we just take part in the commemorations. At Te Tii, and the Treaty grounds, we watch, sometimes participate, in the speaking tent. We attend the dawn prayer ceremony on Waitangi Day, which is often a moving experience. And we say it's a must for our rōpu.

We observe, with thousands of others, the waka launchings and the 21 gun salute from the New Zealand Navy. Generally, we meet lots of interesting people and eat lots of fried bread.

And the second of the group things we do is that we have developed a relationship with Te Tii marae over the years, which means that we now help to serve in the kitchen. The marae kitchen, and we do other service mahi over three days, leading up to the sixth. And we also have our own marquee site at Te Tii, which is sort of a base for our team. And we do have a sort of historical sort of tours, guided walks with Kaumātua and historians around the Bay of islands from Oihi Rangihoua in the North to the Paihia mission site with our old friend Elizabeth Ludbrook who must be almost 80 now.

So in general terms we have a very rich experience. We come away with more knowledge about our past, a deeper appreciation of the relationships that were formed in those early days, relationships that I think that can be observed and felt to be very much still part of the fabric of that place and of our present. And we also come away with ongoing challenge of repairing and reviving relationships, and of learning the stories and experiences of other communities within the nation.

So by being at Waitangi, by learning and serving we in some way in some small way participate in those stories. And I think such commemorative activity is part of what makes a society that deserves to be called a society or a community of human beings. And I'm going to take a cue from Bishop Vercoe and finish with a quote from Te Rawiri or the Psalms that to me speaks of what I think Waitangi the place means, and can mean for the nation. It's not the same quote from Psalms, thankfully, or it's a different quote. So Psalm 85:, 10 to 11

‘Kua tūtataki te mahitohu rāua ko te pono;
kua kihi tahi te tikanga rāua ko te mārietanga.
E tupu ake te pono i te wenua; a e titiro iho te tikanga i te rangi.’

And the authorised version, "mercy and truth have met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other, truth shall sprang out of the youth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven." Kia ora tātou katoa.

[APPLAUSE]

Paul Meredith: Thank you Sam, I note that's something admirable what you've committed to over the last 20 years, and the fact that you're even taking four children up north, it shows real Pākehā commitment to the Treaty of Waitangi. But, and the fact that you also in the kitchen, he whakaaro Māori tēnā, tēnā koe.Now I'd like to introduce Professor Rawinia Higgins from Tūhoe. I don’t know if Tūhoe have signed the Treaty?. Here you go, all trespassers will be eaten. Haere mai!

Speaker 3 — Professor Rawinia Higgins

Rawinia Higgins: Tēnā tātou katoa, tēnā koutou kua whakarauika mai ki tēnei kaupapa. E tautoko ana ahau i ngā mihi kua mihia. He mihi hoki ki tēnei whare, te kaipupuri i tō tātou kaupapa i tēnei rā, arā Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

It's a real privilege to be here unlike my tūngane, both of them here, who have spoken before me. I don't have a presentation, I'm actually a last minute ring-in for this. However, I'm going to roll with it and as Paul said, I'm from Tūhoe. We didn't sign the Treaty of Waitangi. And therefore you're probably thinking, oh, so what do you know? However, despite the fact Tūhoe didn't sign the Treaty and there are various versions as to why we did, why we didn't, it's not as though we as a iwi didn't talk about the Treaty of Waitangi. And I want to pay particular reference to Te Kooti Rikirangi’s waiata Kāore te pō nei mōrikarika noa which we sing, continue to sing today.

And in the beginning of this-- this is one of Te Kooti’s prophecies. And of course Te Kooti resided with Tūhoe hiding out from everybody as well as with Paul's people. And Te Kooti, in this particular waiata, which was a kupu whakari to Tuhoe. He refers to three mana. And ko te mana tuatahi: Te Tiriti o Waitangi; ko te mana tuaruako te whenua, ko te mana tuatoru ko te mana motuhake and it's in the first stanza of that waiata].

So we sung about the Treaty of Waitangi because we continued to remind ourselves about this prophecy throughout the long vision of this waiata, it does-- and basically it has Te Kooti forecasting for Tūhoe what would happen in the Ureweras. And a lot of that has come to fruition.

So the Treaty of course, being the first mana, so as a result of that te mana tuarua which is Te Koti Whenua which is the Māori Land Court. And the third one is mana motuhake. And for us mana motuhake is actually a word that we use more than we ever used tino rangatiratanga.

So like with others, and so because we weren't taught about the Treaty in schools, as a child growing up in-- with my Tūhoe people, I never heard anyone talk about tino rangatiratanga, I onlyver heard them talk about mana motuhake and of course, this plays out further on as we get older. But I don't want-- I didn't come here to talk about my peoples. This is about the celebration, commemoration, comiserationration of Waitangi Day.

And I just want to acknowledge this scope of it because it-- for me, basically what was said before, I disagree with. And I agree with it. And I agree with what Bishop Vercoe said as well. And so I'm going to take a slightly different spin on it. And we'll come to know-- it will be of no surprise to most people that as the Māori Language Commissioner, I'm going to talk about the reo.

And more particularly that what we've seen and what Kura, and Sam, and them have talked about in what Bishop Vercoe was talking about. The kind of evolution of the Treaty of Waitangi and celebrations for the Treaty of Waitangi are synonymous with those that have happened for the reo So protesting, starting off with protesting as part of our trajectory of where we are today was very much part of what we saw on the streets where people were asking for the reoto be taught in schools.

And then over time, as a result of the claim, the Treaty of Waitangi claim, te reo Māori, created the Māori Language commission. And many other things, many other kaupapa that has helped to raise critical awareness across society, about the importance of te reo Māori also, of course, linking it back to the Treaty as one of the versions in -- Māori as the language of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

From protest to celebration

More recently, we've seen a shift from protesting to celebration. So our Māori Language parades that we had as part of Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori’s kaupapa for te wīki o te reo. Initially, relatively sceptical that people would want to participate in a parade as opposed to a protest. But really surprised at the turnout. And they became popular in the following years. Last year, because of COVID we were unable to continue our celebrations. But we move from protest, parade to a moment online that actually generated more people than we had ever anticipated.

So the government has a goal to-- in 2040, coinciding with, of course, the 200 yearsto reach a million speakers for te reo Māori] in te reo Māori for this country. Now we managed to get a million, over a million people to do a moment in te reo Māori-- of te reo Māori on Māori Language week. We as the commission are looking this year to using Waitangi Day or Waitangi celebrations as a way to continue that journey.

Not waiting for Modern Language week, but actually using this as the platform to be able to encourage people in those million people, who did the moment, what more can we do? What are the next steps beyond that?

So we're not just a flash in the pan, that we are actually pushing each other. So I would really encourage everybody to think about what more reo you need for your kete. What's going to help you to extend your reo, and it could be as simple as just introducing yourself. So I want to acknowledge Sam, who clearly demonstrated to us today one way to extend on our language by introducing ourselves. So if more of our Ngāi Te Tiriti partners, as he just said in his paper, pick up the reo, the more that we can get to our target of a million speakers.

Māori Language Week

And it goes along with what Kura talked about. So rather than Māori Language Week started as Māori Language Day as part of the protest, and then it moved into a week. Now every year while I've been the commissioner, I get asked shouldn't it be more than a week, and it's been a week for 40 years. And that's true but some of those things could be said about Waitangi Day because, as Kura pointed out, Waitangi Day for differentiIwi happens on different days. And every day is Waitangi Day for many of us, just as every day is Te Reo Maori Day or Te Reo Māori Week.

Because in a similar way, the trajectory of where we've been going is that Te Reo Maori has continued to get stronger and stronger. It is an intergenerational kaupapa. It takes three generations to restore a language, takes one generation to lose it. We are still not at generation three yet, from the time we started our protesting. We hope by the time we get to 2040 we would have cracked that, and so I would encourage you all to think about that as part of that trajectory. Many things have changed, and as previous speakers have said, we've come a long way, but there's still actually a long way to go.

And as Sir James Henare said, we can't stop now, we have to keep moving forward in order for us to continue. So just want to acknowledge the kaupapa. E oho, which means literally to wake up, or get woke in the more modern vernacular. But I also want to end in making a reference to the beginning, where Bishop Vercoe, before he started speaking, on the screen it had tātou tātou was the caption, or the title on there. But I'm going to extend on that by saying tātou katoa, which means all of us together, tatou ka toa as in two words, and we will be successful. So all of us will be successful. Tēnā tātou katoa.

[APPLAUSE]

Questions

Paul Meredith: Tātou ka toa. Kupu rangatira ēnā.
I am just conscious of the time because it's just going past 1:00 o’clock so we will invite some quick questions. You can ask them in Māori or Pākehā or English.

We've got a roving mic.

Audience member: Kia ora, thank you so much. More of a statement and to tautoko what you've been saying, as someone who whakapapas to Te Ātiawa but grew up in the Bay of Islands inPakaraka where Henry Williams was exiled to and who worked with Waitangi National Trust for a little while, it's really wonderful to see people recognising the different spin that the media puts on Waitangi Day and the difference from the occasion as it stands up in the Bay of Islands. I celebrated Waitangi Day at Waitangi every day of my life until I moved to Wellington, and being here was quite different, experiencing it in a different region, because, of course, it is very region specific.

And I like to think that as we move forward, we will, like what you've mentioned, Kura, start to recognise regionally-specific Waitangi days throughout the country and across the motu to celebrate it in different ways for our different peoples. Because of course, it's not just in Waitangi. It is a nationwide document that has relevance to -- into our future to ensure that we do continue to support and uphold the fundamental articles of the Treaty. So thank you.

Paul Meredith: Kia ora koe.Any other questions? It sort of does rely on a bit of a commitment because if you look at how far we've come with Matariki and the development, the way that the country sort of got behind Matariki, the media, the education system, do you think we need the same sort of thing with Waitangi? Do you think we're doing enough in schools? Is the media doing enough, Sam?

Sam Carpenter: Never enough, I suppose. Do you mean about Waitangi Day, generally, or just sort of history. Generally.

Yeah, I'm not sure. We can always do more, and I do like the idea that we support more regionally-specific commemorations. It's hard to be, obviously, in more than one place at once, but yeah. And I've certainly gone along to Te Rā o te Raukura a couple of times. But yeah, I'm sure the media could do more to really cover Waitangi Day better, but I know Māori TV as always done a great job on thatac count for many years so. Just watch Māori TV, I suppose.

Paul Meredith: Anyone else have a comment? Any questions? Kura, how can we, as Wellingtonians, be a part of the 29th of April because I think that's quite important?

Kura Moeahu: I think the first aspect is that iwi need to be thinking about what does it look like for us? And then working -- because as much as I would love a holiday on the 29th of April, that's not going to happen. But it's how do we promote through Māori radio, through Te Upoko o Te Ika Te Ātiawa Toa FM and promote that this day is significant for us Wellingtonians? And just around Kāpiti they signed on another day. I think was the 30th or something like that. And so how do we celebrate these days, specifically, just within the harbour here, and then how do we promote and encourage schools to think about bringing people to come and visit the likes of He Tohu, to visit key places within the Wellington area where the Treaty was signed, and talk about that, speeches like this.

And it's about just continuing to inform, and as Rawinia said, it's a collective responsibility for all of us to make this country a better place for each and every one of us. Kia ora.

Paul Meredith: Ka pai. Any further questions? Going once.

Audience member: Tēnā koe e Kura, e whakarongo ake ki tō tohi e pā ana ki Te Āti Awa, kei te mihi atu ki a koe, nō te mea kotahi noa i a mātou pea ko Waikato Tainui i hainatia Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Engari he titiro atu ki ngā ingoa kua tuhia nei i konā o Ngāti Awa. Me whakamōhio mai, kia mōhio ai ngā Learning Facilitators ēnā tūāhatanga e pā ana ki te iwi. So when ina kōrero ana rātou ki ēnei rōpū kāore i te puta mai ēnā kōrero. And ki ahau nei, ko koutou rā te mana whenua o tēnei wāhi, mōhio mātou mō ērā tūāhuatanga, hītori e pā ana ki tō iwi, huri noa hoki ki te iwi whānui. So kei te mihi atu ki a kōrua and koutou hoki tokotoru mō tēnei kaupapa e pā ana... so you know me whakanuia, me whakanuia i tēnei rā a Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Memehea he kai, mehemea he kōrero whakapapa mō tērā wā, I’m sure ka hui te nuinga ki tērā huihuinga. So kei te mihi atu ki a koe e Kura.

Paul Meredith: Bella was just acknowledging the importance of the 29th and also ensuring that mana whenua are able to tell this story of that day, and educators, I think that's important. Ka pai? Ka nui tēnā pea. Ka hoki ki a koe, e Hugh. Ka whakakapi tata tēnei hui.

Hugh Karena: Tēnā nō tātou.

Conclusion

Tēnā anō tātou. Mihi kau ana ki tā tātou nei māngai i tēnei wā. Kua whakaputa kōrero, kua whakaputa whakaaro, kua tonotono ki a mātou e pā ana ki tā mātou nei hītori engari ki te huarahi kei te haere mai. Ā te rua tekau tau ka puta mai te rā whānau o Te Tiriti, te rā whānau rua rau, nō reira e ahu ana tātou ki hea ki te tiki i tēnā kaupapa. Nō reira ngā mihi ki a koutou kua haere mai ki te awhi ki te tautoko i tēnei kaupapa. Tēnā anō tātou kua tau mai.

I think we have closing karakia for us all to stand up and join in. So if we take to our feet, OK.

Kia tau ki a tātou katoa
Te atawhai o tō tātou Ariki, a Ihu Karaiti
Me te aroha o te Atua
Me te whiwhingatahitanga
Ki te wairua tapu
Ake, ake, ake
Amine

---

Any errors with the transcript, let us know and we will fix them. Email us at digital-services@dia.govt.nz