The Māori Magna Carta: Waitangi and beyond

The Treaty of Waitangi has been said to be the ‘Māori Magna Carta’. What role has the connection between Magna Carta and the Treaty played in Māori politics and how is that role changing as the in the context of present-day Treaty politics?
This is part of the University of Auckland’s week long public lecture series for the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta.
Simon O'Connor, MP for Tāmaki: Simon was educated at the University of Auckland, and also trained to become a Catholic priest. Though he completed his training, he did not seek ordination. Simon is a director on the board of Monarchy New Zealand, a nationwide constitutional lobby group, and is a frequent media commentator on constitutional and monarchical issues in New Zealand. Simon is a keen fencer, motorcyclist, runner, and supporter of the arts. He is dedicated to lifelong education and completed a Masters of Political Studies in 2010, which he undertook while working full-time.
Isaac Hikaka, LeeSalmonLong Barristers and Solicitors: Isaac Hikaka specialises in complex trust litigation, public and administrative law, relationship property and commercial litigation. He has particular expertise in complex disputes involving complicated structuring, especially involving trusts, which are contained solely within New Zealand or which straddle multiple jurisdictions. He has similar expertise in public and administrative law issues, acting for government entities defending decisions, applicants seeking to challenge government decisions and third parties seeking to retain the benefit of challenged decisions. He also appears as counsel on constitutional and commercial disputes at superior and appellate Courts in multiple Pacific jurisdictions.
Judge Carrie Wainwright, Waitangi Tribunal: Judge Carrie Wainwright was appointed in 2000 as kaiwhakawā of the Māori Land Court and served on the Waitangi Tribunal for ten years, including six years as the Deputy Chairperson and one year as Acting Chairperson from 2008-2009. Judge Wainwright is now Chairperson of the Immigration and Protection Tribunal, and remains the Presiding Officer for the Waitangi Tribunal's Whanganui lands inquiry. Judge Wainwright was formerly a partner of the law firm Buddle Findlay, where she practised as a litigation lawyer for 13 years. During this time, she also worked on secondment to the Treasury and to the Crown-Congress Joint Working Party. She specialised in judicial review and law relating to the Treaty of Waitangi, acting extensively for Māori parties.
Chair: Lisa Chant, Senior Lecturer, Inter-professional Health Studies, AUT.

[@paroaapanui4468]

The name Maori was created by General Assembly of New Zealand in the Maori Real Estate Management Act 1867. In this act the word "Maori" shall mean aboriginal native of New Zealand and shall include haft-caste. Under Allodial title to Te Ika-a-Maui or Aotearoa is through whakapapa, occupation and discovery. Aboriginal natives did not discover New Zealand. Te Ika-a-Maui was discovered Firstly by Maui and his brothers and named all the parts of the islands. Secondly Kupe arrived and called it Aotearoa. On the 14th Jan 1839 Hobson while in Australia prepared the documentation for the Treaty of Waitangi and on this date annexed New Zealand by discovery by Abel Tasman through Australia before our ariki and rangatira signed the Treaty of Waitangi on Thurs 6th Feb 1840 and lost their rangatiratanga (sovereignty not governance) to be a mea signatory to a document that they had no involvement in and became a mea trustee and shareholder of their Allodial land title under the crown agents MLC run by colonial governance Pakeha Magna Carta not Maori Magna Carta.

[@DW_Kiwi]

All I got from this was your statement "on Thurs 6th Feb 1840 and lost their rangatiratanga (sovereignty not governance)" The Maori lost their sovereignty. So agree!!

[@willgeorge5644]

I believe we should ALL rule ourselves, part of rangatiratanga? It's part of direct democracy. What the world has now is representative democracy, is not only open to abuse but encourages it. Our government has reached a stage where it's a club, and we can only vote for the people we dislike least. Anybody we like has no chance of getting near government, and they are too wise to try.

[@michaeledgar6118]

Congratulations to the bloke who recorded this incomprehensible monologue

[@dgm2593]

Wrong pakeha! 540 chiefs who signed the Maori version of the treaty did not cede sovereignty!

[@amomentsnotice]

Oh really, Caucasians were originally nomadic barbarian cannibals that migrated from the eastern regions of Europe known today as the Caucasus Mountain Ranges, western Europe & the continent of Europe Eurasia was originally established & inhabited by melanated black ancestors long before the Science of Pheomelanin came through the ancient history of Climate Change during the last Ice Age some 20K+ years ago. Foreign rulership of Ancient Kemet is 3600+ years old to this day now known as Egypt, the same exact programme played out on all Indigenous Communities around the Planet. It’s nothing new what New Zealand is doing politically in 2024 or any other year before or after, every Foreign Nation that was in the rulership of Ancient Kemet are the same Nations playing the same games in 2024. 👁️🕳️⚫️🌍🌎🌏👽☠️✨🖕🏽

[@rihipaeahughes9831]

That was awesome ❤

[@tangihorofitzgerald915]

The very first people of the world all spoke the same language until the Holy Spirit took charge and sent the WORD.

[@rihipaeahughes9831]

Omg wtf

[@DW_Kiwi]

At 52:12 "Sovereignty is about the ability to exercise power" Rubbish. Sovereignty was the ability to legitimately exercise Common Law. to control the Lawlessness of New Zealand. Thereby offering protection to both parties.

[@user-mc6js8or3r]

True that but became a corporate investment for past n present politricksters under democrappy

[@matiupyro660]

Yeah I agree😁

[@davethewave7248]

'They [the Maori] didn't know how much interests they owned in the land, and they didn't know where there interests were' [when the Crown agents were buying land in central NI]. Anyone see how absurd this all is? What kind of ownership is it where the owner is ignorant of what they own. Looks like the agents were only looking to extinguish later claims that *could* at a later date be made by Maori in the area. The country was undeveloped, the state/ govt had not much money, the land was waste land... need I go on. This speaker is projecting current values onto the past.

[@rihipaeahughes9831]

Please say something that will impact the kaupapa

[@dennisconroy3459]

This is undescribable about the taking off land from the Maori. The Maori concept is you cannot not sell your mother the land ,but to share mother Earth with other ethnic people under Tikanga and customary rights. What the Colonialist did they approached minors and separated the land from the Maori ,this is absolutely wrong. Now Maori are standing on the outside of their land, separated from creating a wealth to their well-being. A remedy is in need and has not been rectified yet. Statutory cloaking does not give the Government the excuse that they may think that is satisfactory to themselves. Maori land court deliberately invented to benefit Colonialists and used as a deliberate tool to attempt to take land of Maori , A lot of land has never bought, The Maori were not selling land it was the vision of the Colonialist, not Maori.

[@DW_Kiwi]

The "Treaty " says based your comments that you are racist

[@user-mc6js8or3r]

Truth n nothing but the truth will set NZ free, , , n remove the profiteers

[@Matikemai2040]

@@DW_Kiwiwho f arkin caree 😂😂😂

[@kingfillins4117]

Any sell it? Maori didn’t have money. They would massacre the whole iwi and take the land though.

[@Matikemai2040]

@@kingfillins4117 aiiing stop the cap

[@richardmartin3127]

This is 6 years plus old.

[@tribesmann8800]

The only remedy is to kick the crown out of the drivers seat, they will never ever give up the sovereignty they stole from Maori. Go back to the signing ( which is legitimate ) to King William IV, the original partnership 1834. The words ' Maori, Iwi, waitangi tribunal ' etc .... belong to the crown, i.e the crown own maori ( invented by pakeha 1945 ) and Iwi also owned by the crown. The pakeha have been underhanded and will always work for their own interests under this system while maori go round and round in circles under them.

[@andrewbell9039]

makes sense for Brand Aotearoa ?? their little playground in the Pacific.

[@DW_Kiwi]

So wrong. Stole!!! You do not know or have been taught wrongly about actual history.

[@DW_Kiwi]

Your ancestors "signed" it away!!

[@dgm2593]

No they didnt. Your ancestors cheated and frauded the treaty. You thieving liers.

[@rihipaeahughes9831]

What of the first Tiriti

[@rihipaeahughes9831]

Maori prejudice themselves by default answering to documents drawn up the British

[@rihipaeahughes9831]

So annoying the sound of pakeha mispronouncing Te reo

[@richardmartin3127]

Recon, more insulting even after all these years....yet laziness still prevalent.

[@whakakai-wanangaongapuhi7396]

Tena koutou katoa......☠️

[@davethewave7248]

The whole point of the Treaty was for Maori to wilfully sell surplus lands in order to settle immigrants. The intention of the Crown was for Maori to enjoy the privileges of civil society while that society grew around them.

[@rihipaeahughes9831]

Underhanded corrupt annexation of Maoriland

[@rihipaeahughes9831]

Pakeha are the major owners of Maori coastal land originally annexed by government institutions

[@davethewave7248]

@@rihipaeahughes9831 Most land was bought by the Crown or settlers.

[@tonymorgan9240]

Not Pakeha I am a maori of full blood I can trace my whakapapa back to the 7 tribes, Son of Joseph Eiphraim Try and dispute if you can I feel you know nothing about anything suck it up and get a life ???

[@StGammon77]

The Israelite tribes were white, you know, the ones who were enslaved for 400 yars by the black Pharoahs, prove it wrong suck it up you had 800 yrs to build an empire and you were still in survival mode when Europeans came to settle.

[@stephenlennon7369]

Buhahaha 😂

[@user-mc6js8or3r]

And the cow flew ova the moon 😂🎉

[@gayjacob1657]

How did you come by the name Tony Morgan?

[@richardmartin3127]

Stop it... you're discredited you're whakapapa. With European names. No full blooded MAORI is in existence.

[@NellbyNqture]

38:00

[@davethewave7248]

Maori land was sold largely at a nominal price. This land was then on-sold to settlers. The revenue raised enabled the building of the state and the infrastructure, which was meant to better the life of all. Historical imagination is required here... not a 'correct' reading of the past [on present terms].

[@GS-wz1ud]

Under article 3, Maori are entitled to all the rights and freedoms of British subjects. The Magna Carta is a subset of rights within article 3, where the rulers and the ruled were subject to the same law. This precept, that everyone is subject to the same rules of law is a fundamental notion of democracy. This raises a number of questions regarding the failure of the Treaty, where a tyrannical Crown enacted draconian legislation, and systematically undermined Maori rights. Starting with treaty principles of good faith, fair dealing and proper process. Why can't these principles be expanded to include the Magna Carta, to give the TOW some teeth. What about BORA, where the TOW Act must be interpreted in a manner that is consistent with the rights and freedoms in BORA. BORA is a subset of rights within article 3, and article 3 under the TOW Act must be interpreted in a manner that is consistent with the rights in BORA. That seems reasonable, because the whole concept of the rule of law is present in both documents. Power must be exercise on a principle of law: rather than on a whim.

[@GS-wz1ud]

Rule of law is in the Magna Cater chapter 29, included in section 3 of the ILAA 1988.

[@operationgoodoil8131]

You will find that the word "Maori" did not pertain to any specific ethnic group or groups with an honest interpretation of Ti Tiriti. Tangata Maori is translated as ordinary people or natural people. The meaning and the principle that was being conveyed was "natural persons" a long standing legal definition of a breathing living or "alive" human being. Therefore the meaning was that all new Zealanders were to have equal rights and privileges as a citizen of England. It was the bedrock for the constitution of governance, an exact replication but only unique in that it is an entirely different country. The only country in the world where this happened, the condescending racists want to make out like the tribesman didn't know what was going on. They knew, in fact they had discussed it in great detail and I am sure that such a profound and unique occurrence would of had much input from them.

[@GS-wz1ud]

@@operationgoodoil8131 Maori and Pakeha are in the preamble, and the use of the term is consistent with the goal of establishing a government. Agree with the rest of your oplnlon., and include some Northern Iwi now claim their tupuna didn't cede sovereignty as well. Can't call them racist; delusional perhaps, but not racist.

[@davethewave7248]

'In many cases land purchases weren't robust and fair'. OK, so the better educated among the Europeans advocated some kind of protectionsim. Many Maori themselves resented such... they wanted complete equality before the law. Once many chiefs got their name on the title, they were only too keen to sell the and [often surplus undeveloped wasteland to them] for short term gains.

[@Thewandereringanzac]

Where do you get your info from? I want sources so that I can read and be educated because every comment section you appear in you say things that no historian is saying. You’re either dead wrong, making up your own version of history, or know something these historians don’t.

[@davethewave7248]

@@Thewandereringanzac You need to take into account the notion of a 'paradigm shift' [read Thomas Kuhn on this]. A paradigm is a set of concepts by which most make the mass of information that surrounds us intelligible. All those 'historians' your refer to are most likely subscribers to the new paradigm [remember, there has been an intellectual revolution of late]. Given this, you need to read with an open mind the original source material. Go back to the letters, diaries, journals, testimonies... and the further back the better. There you get your history straight from the horses mouth - warts and all~~

[@davethewave7248]

@@Thewandereringanzac R. D . Crosby, Colenso, Cowan, Polack, Reeves, Grey, Gorst, Sinclair, King, Ward, Buick to name just a few~

[@Thewandereringanzac]

@@davethewave7248 cool thanks for that ✌️

[@rihipaeahughes9831]

Landless in a multiply owned land system created by a pakeha lead governance, natives don't stand a chance after that Treaty signing fiasco that was drawn up on the ship that carried it here

[@margaloosboy257]

stupid Maoris settling withthe rip off Pākehā shame on u . Te Atiawa 🖕

[@rihipaeahughes9831]

Govt created institutions like lands and survey, gave small shareholders a way to sell their shares without consulting other landowners imagine what happened next, lands and survey leased the land and dissolved the major shareholders

[@rihipaeahughes9831]

Ĥongi hika was a missionary who wiped out many tangata in the outer BOIslands down to ngatiwhatua, he was indoctrined into British warmongering against his own people, I patu haere koe