59
Human Rights Commission
I do not know of any year the Māori people
have approached with so much misgiving as
this centennial year. What does the Māori see?
Lands gone, the power of chiefs humbled in
the dust, Māori culture scattered and broken
(Tū Ake Exhibition, 2011).
The government described Ngata as ‘ungrateful’
(Orange, 1987, pp. 235-238).
Despite a pact between Wiremu Pōtiki Rātana and
Labour, it took 13 years to consider Rātana’s 30,000
signature petition to recognise Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and
37 years to appoint a Māori Minister of Māori Affairs.
The World War II ‘Price of Citizenship’ campaign,
whereby Pākehā fought for their country and Māori
fought to be accepted by their country, produced the
Māori Women’s Welfare League, tribal trust boards
and the Māori Council, none of which possessed
real authority or autonomy. Trust boards required
ministerial approval for spending over £100. The
Minister of Māori Affairs had to approve the tribal
stamp. By the 1980s, over 2,300 historical petitions to
the government over land losses and related issues
lay unaddressed (Kelsey, 1990, pp. 98-99).
Māori Affairs Amendment Act (1967)
Interestingly, the first activist action came from a
decade of traditionally conservative Māori leadership
by the Māori Women’s Welfare League and the Māori
Council, who raised the awareness of Māori youth
via their responses to the passing of the Māori Affairs
Amendment Act (1967). Dubbed ‘the last land grab’
the Act required the compulsory sale of shares in
Māori land worth less than £100 (Waitangi Tribunal,
1997, Vol. 1, p. 113). In 1968, a handful of Māori leaders
boycotted Waitangi Day in protest at the land grab
of the previous year. MP Whetū Tirikātene-Sullivan
received a small protest delegation at Parliament.
Te Hōkioi and MOOHR (Late 1960s,
early 1970s)
These multiple threads came together as a whāriki
of dissent against injustice in two organisations
formed after the 1967 Act. Te Hōkioi, named after
the Waikato newspaper of King Tāwhiao, and the
Māori Organisation on Human Rights (MOOHR),
launched consciousness-raising newsletters
highlighting the erosion of Māori rights by legislation
and discrimination in housing, education, health,
employment, sport and politics. Key issues were
contextualised under the Treaty of Waitangi, the
UDHR, the anti-apartheid struggle, Marxism,
and liberal human rights philosophy (Walker, 1980c;
Walker 1980e; Poata-Smith, 1996, pp. 97-116; Walker,
2004, pp. 209-210).
Ngā Tamatoa (Waitangi 1971)
The stage was set for a new wave of activism.
While Te Hōkioi and MOOHR were ‘underground’
consciousness-raising mechanisms for a wider
spectrum of Māori to engage in emancipatory
practices, Ngā Tamatoa (Young Warriors), which
formed in 1970, became the public face of action.
In previous generations, chiefs, prophets, charismatic
leaders, and educated Māori had developed
determined strategies to challenge Pākehā. The
Māori Council and the Māori Women’s Welfare
League were their continuations. Freed from rural
strictures, urban generations now had the freedom
to choose the form and direction their actions
would take. While the historical goals remained
the same, they would challenge older leaders with
new strategies (Walker, 1984, pp. 267-281). Members
included Syd Jackson, Toro Waaka, Taitimu Maipi,
John Ohia, Orewa Barrett-Ohia, Paul Kotara, Linda
Mead (Tuhiwai Smith), Rawiri Paratene, Zac Wallace,
Ripeka Evans, Tame Iti, Josie Keelan, Hilda Harawira,
Tiata Witehira, Hone Harawira, Cora Davis, Donna
Awatere, John Tahu and Larry Parr.
Ngā Tamatoa mixed urbanised dissident university
students and graduates, unionists, and other
experienced political activists. They opened offices in
Auckland and Wellington. Members provided Māori
offenders with court support. The mainly non-fluent
membership prioritised the revival of te reo Māori.
A petition to parliament called for the inclusion of
te reo in schools. Ngā Tamatoa established the first
community Kura Reo taking urban youth to rural
marae to learn te reo from elders. Their advocacy
saw the first annual Māori Language Day (the
precursor of Te Wiki o te Reo Māori) and secured a
one-year teacher training course for native speakers.
In an irony of history, non-speakers had led the first
revitalisation of te reo (Walker, 1980d; Walker, 2004,
pp. 210-211; Poata-Smith, 1996, p. 102).