Trick or Treaty? New Zealand 1800s PDF

Treaties    and    Agreements Trick  or  Treaty? For Maori in the 19th Century the arrival of the Europeans was both a scary and interesting time. Early Pakeha needed Maori more than Maori needed them but when more Pakeha came and New Zealand became a dangerous, lawless country, Maori asked the Bri...

Treaties    and    Agreements Trick  or  Treaty? For Maori in the 19th Century the arrival of the Europeans was both a scary and interesting time. Early Pakeha needed Maori more than Maori needed them but when more Pakeha came and New Zealand became a dangerous, lawless country, Maori asked the British for help—and the British took their chance. A fter James Cook had visited New Zealand in 1769 word spread of the rich resources just waiting to Busy as a Busby After hearing reports about how bad New Zea- land was, the British government acted by ap- be exploited. Within ten years pointing a Resident—James Busby, in 1833. His many sealers, whalers and trad- job was to protect Maori & Pakeha settlers by be- ers had made their way to New ing Zealand. In order to survive they responsible  for  ‘controlling’  all  the   needed to cooperate with local naughtiness. His instructions were Maori- remember there were to protect 'well disposed settlers more Maori in Aotearoa than Pa- and traders' and prevent 'outrages' keha, so Maori were in charge! by Europeans against Maori while apprehending escaped convicts. As more Europeans arrived small However,  he  wasn’t  given  the  pow-­ trading towns developed in and er of arrest & had no police force or around Maori villages. There was soldiers to help him! He was no law in New Zealand so some of dubbed  the  “man-o’-war with out these towns became pretty unruly guns”!   places. Kororareka (Russell) was one of the worst and was nick named  the  “Hell  hole  of  the  Pacif-­ Independence Day ic”.  Why  was  it  so  bad?  Drunken-­ Busby’s  first  real  achievement  came  in  1835  when  he   ness, prostitution and acts of vio- convinced thirty-four North Island chiefs to sign a Dec- lence were everyday occurrences laration of Independence. This officially made New and people took justice into their Zealand an independent country with the chiefs who own hands! signed  considered  the  ‘leaders’  of  the  new  nation.  In   the document they asked William IV, King of England, to  be  the  their  ‘parent’.  The  Brits  were  happy  about  this   as they had now stopped other countries getting a hold of New Zealand—especially the foul French who the English hated! So all was good, right? Wrong! New Zea- land was still full of drunks, thieves & villains. Busby had changed nothing! Maori had begun to suffer from European influences such as alcohol and disease—and traditional Maori values, such as the im- portance of whanau were beginning to break up. Britain sent another important man to sort it all out...  Treaties    and    Agreements Big Willie Style I feel a draft William Hobson arrived in New Hobson set to work on a draft treaty Zealand in 1839 after being ap- which Busby completed when Hobson got pointed Lieutenant-Governor. sick. On 4 February, 1840 the draft was He  didn’t  replace  Busby  but   given to father & son missionaries Henry was his boss and the two men & William Williams to translate into Maori. worked  together.  Hobson’s  task   Neither was an expert at Maori and the was to make New Zealand a final Maori version of the Treaty was not British colony—meaning that word for word. Maori chiefs had made the British would rule New Zea- their way to Waitangi on 4 February and land. The problem was that New Zealand the day after the Treaty was read. Debate (because of the Declaration of Independence) followed long into the night. On 6 Febru- was  an  independent  country.  Britain  couldn’t   ary the Treaty was signed—led by influen- just take over without a fight—and Britain did- tial northern chiefs, Hone Heke and Tama- n’t  want  that!  Instead  they  would  have  to  per-­ ti Waka Nene who felt the time to say no suade the Maori chiefs to give up their rule. to Pakeha was over. Copies of the Treaty How? With a treaty! then toured the country and about 500 signatures were The Treaty contained three main articles or collected. parts. Here they are in simple language! The Treaty of Waitangi Article #1: Allowed he British to establish a government and make laws in New Zealand. Article #2: Guaranteed Maori the continued ownership and control of their lands, forests, fish- eries, homes and other assets. Maori could only sell their land to the British Empire. Article #3: Gave Maori the full rights of British citizenship. A  painting  of  the  signing  of  the  Treaty  of  Waitangi.  This  painting   The  marquee  was  made   was  completed  in  1940  as  part  of  the  centenary  celebrations. from  ship  sails.  The  flags   of  all  different  nations   Nga  Puhi  chief   displayed  were  probably   Tamati  Waka   only  added  by  the  artist  of   Nene  signs  the   this  painting. Treaty  while  Hen-­ ry  Williams   Hobson  seated  at  the   watches  on.  This   main  table.  He  actual-­ second  table  actu-­ ly  didn’t  wear  his   ally  didn’t  exist! navel  uniform!  After   each  chief  had  signed   he  shook  their  hand   and  said,  “He  iwi  tahi   tatou”  (now  we  are   one  people) About  forty  chiefs   signed  on  the  day.   Most  made  a  simple   “x”  as  their  mark  Treaties    and    Agreements What did each side believe they got from the Treaty? “Maori  have  given  us  the  right  to  rule  New  Zealand.  We  can   set up a government. We are now in charge. New Zealand is  British  &  we  rule  everything.” “Maori  will  want  to  sell  land  and  they  have  to  sell  it  to  us   first. This will mean that they give up rights to it once sold. “Maori  are  now  British  citizens—we will protect them as such.” “We  have  allowed  Britain  to  establish  leadership  in  this  land.  They   will make laws that will apply only to the Pakeha here. Britain rules in  name  only.” “New  Zealand  belongs  to  the  Maori.  Chiefs  will  keep  their  mana  and   will continue to rule their tribes. Maori, as a people, rule New Zea- land.” “We  can  sell  our  land  to  whomever  we  want  &  only  if  we  want.  Sell-­ ing  it  doesn’t  mean  we  can’t  still  use  it.” “Our  treasure  (forests,  sea,  wildlife)  is  protected  &  under  our  con-­ trol. We can use it how we always have used it. “The  British  Queen  will  protect  us  from  the  bad  Pakeha  who  have   Lost in translation At  the  time  of  the  signing,  the  Maori  chiefs  seemed  happy  enough,  right?  That’s  true,  but  largely   because they believed that they were getting something different from what they actually got (see above). There were lots of reasons for this. To begin with there were a number of different versions of the Treaty—and none of them were really true copies! Importantly, the English and Maori  versions  didn’t  match  up.  Some  of  the  maori  words  used  had  different  meanings  than  the   English words. The most crucial of these was the word used for sovereignty (rule of a country) in the maori version—kawanatanga. To Maori this meant a kind of governance without complete control of everything. Had the missionaries used the phrase tino rangatiratanga, - which includes concepts of land, mana and sovereignity— Maori chiefs would have understood better and NEV- ER would have signed. Mana was very important and would never had been just given away! tino rangatirtanga was used in Article 2 which meant that the Chiefs understood that they had control over land, fisheries, for- ests  and  all  “treasures”  they  considered  important.  However,  Arti-­ cle  1  gave  this  control  away.  Confusing,  isn’t  it!  Little  wonder  the   Chiefs  didn’t  understand! The idea that Maori could only sell to the British also went against Article 3—it was a right of British citizens to sell land to whomever they wanted! Maori were now British citizens! Maori culture also believed  that  even  though  land  was  sold  it  didn’t  prevent  them   from still using it—ownership and ability to use were quite separate things. This belief was going to cause problems...  Treaties    and    Agreements When Two Tribes Go To War Misunderstandings from the Treaty ultimately resulted in war throughout the North Island. Most of the disputes were around land sales— a Pakeha desire to get more and more land as cheaply as possible, and a Maori desire to hold on to land that they had seen quickly disappearing. Mao- ri felt let down by the Treaty as the British enforced land ownership rights of Pakeha and also punished many Maori who broke Pakeha law. Under pressure from new settlers for land, the New Zealand government began dealing with individual Maori when it came to land sales. The problem was ownership of land was never in the hands of one Maori—but belonged to the whole tribe. This was a crafty way that the government bought land, and something that caused confusion on whether land had been bought or not! The New Zealand Wars ran through the 1860s and 1870s. The British victory can largely be put down to having greater numbers of sol- diers, however, they suffered a number of defeats at the hands of the supposedly inferior Maori forces. After the wars the government confiscated a lot of land, especially in the Waikato and Taranaki. They not only took land from tribes they fought  against,  but  also  from  tribes  that  fought  with  them!  This  didn’t   win them any friends! Resentment of the Treaty & its broken “promises”  would  continue  for  the  next  160  years.   The Treaty Today The Treaty is considered the basis of the foundation of New Zealand as a country. Often, people speak of the principles or spirit of the Treaty. Unfortunately, there is no clear consensus as to the nature of these. For some people the spirit is one of the joining of two peoples to become one. For others the 'spirit' is one of a partnership between the Crown and Maori. This latter view has tended to be considered the important one in official circles, especially since a series of significant Court decisions in the 1980s which attempted to right some of the grievances, and led the way to some tribes receiving financial compensation and apologies. Most  New  Zealanders  don’t  give  much  thought  to  the  Treaty  and  don’t  understand  its  content,   meaning or intent. TASKS (your teacher may get you to do some or all of these tasks) 1. Use  the  dates  mentioned  to  make  all  the  “stepping  stones”  that  led  to  the  Treaty  being  signed.   Include a brief description of what happened on each stepping stone. 2. Construct a venn diagram that shows what the Pakeha and Maori thought they were getting from the Treaty. The middle of the diagram should have the understandings common to both. 3. In your own words, explain the difference between tino rangatiratanga and kawantanga. 4. Make a list of all the impacts of the Treaty of Waitangi. 5. Think  about  how  the  Government  has  tried  to  “right  the  wrongs”  of  the  Treaty  of  Waitangi.  Has   justice been done? Write a paragraph explaining your answer. 6. Share your paragraph with a partner & discuss. 7. Recently  many  people  have  felt  that  the  Treaty  doesn’t  have  any  relevance  today.  If  we  threw  the   Treaty away and had a new founding document, like a constitution (set of rules) what sort of things should be in it? Construct a list of what you would like to see in such a document.