HUMAN RIGHTS IN NEW ZEALAND 20 1 0 Treaties are the basis for a strengthened partnership between indigenous people and the state. • the rights and responsibilities of equality and common UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Preamble (edited) citizenship for all New Zealanders (Article 3 – rite tahi/ develop their taonga (Article 2 – rangatiratanga/ self-determination) 3 equality). Although it is not part of the text of the Treaty, Lieutenant- Introduction Tïmatatanga Governor Hobson, in response to a question from Catholic The Treaty of Waitangi is the founding document of New to the signing of the Treaty: “The Governor says that the Bishop Pompallier, made the following statement prior Zealand. As outlined in its Preamble, the Treaty was signed between representatives of the British Crown and several rangatira (Mäori chiefs) on 6 February 1840. It enabled subsequent migration to New Zealand and the establishment of government by the Crown. The Preamble sets out the purpose of the Treaty: to protect Mäori rights and property, keep peace and order, and establish government. New Zealand’s history since the signing of the Treaty has been marked by repeated failures to honour these founding promises. The Treaty and Multiculturalism The Preamble to the Treaty enabled the first non-Mäori people – immigrants ‘from Europe and Australia’ – to settle in New Zealand. In doing so, it set the stage for further waves of immigrants from around the world. While the Treaty established a bicultural foundation for New Zealand – which has still to be fully The Treaty is also important as a ‘living document’, central realised – it simultaneously established a to New Zealand’s present and future, as well as its past. It basis for multiculturalism. Given the Crown’s establishes a relationship “akin to partnership” between responsibilities under Article 1 to govern and the Crown and rangatira, and confers a set of rights and make laws for all New Zealanders, this could obligations on each Treaty partner. 1 This relationship has been described as “the promise of two peoples to take the best possible care of each other”. 2 Although there are areas of disagreement between the English and Mäori texts of the Treaty, there are important areas where the texts do agree. Article 1 is essentially about the Crown, Article 2 is about rangatira, and Article 3 is about all citizens and residents (including Mäori, Päkehä and other subsequent migrants). These Articles give each party both rights and responsibilities and invest them with the authority to act. These rights and responsibilities include: • the rights and responsibilities of the Crown to govern (Article 1 – käwanatanga/governance) include the establishment of multicultural policies. There have been many engagements between Mäori as tangata whenua and recent migrants, for example in citizenship ceremonies and marae visits. It is vitally important to the future of New Zealand that all groups in the community engage with the Treaty. The New Zealand Federation of Multicultural Councils has, for example, made a clear commitment to uphold the Treaty of Waitangi and “to raise the consciousness among ethnic communities of the needs, aspirations and status of Mäori”. • the collective rights and responsibilities of Mäori, as Indigenous people, to live as Mäori and to protect and 1 New Zealand Mäori Council v Attorney-General [1987] NZLR 641 2 Bishop Manu Bennett, cited in Human Rights Commission (2003), Human Rights and the Treaty of Waitangi: Te Mana i Waitangi (Auckland: Human Rights Commission) 3 Article 2 of the Treaty also gave the Crown the right of pre-emption or hokonga (buying and selling). This gave the Crown the exclusive right to purchase land which tangata whenua wished to sell. In effect, this established ‘property rights’ in the European sense over the land. Hundreds of people gather at the whare on the Treaty Grounds at Waitangi on a clear morning in the Bay of Islands to mark Waitangi Day, 6 February, 2008. (New Zealand Herald Photograph by Greg Bowker) 39