Evolution and not revolution - Te Papa's treaty debates 2010

Join Dr Claudia Orange, Te Papa’s Collections and Research Group Director and leading Treaty of Waitangi scholar, as she chairs the thought-provoking 2010 Treaty Debates. They will take place in Soundings Theatre, Level 2, on 28 January and 4 February from 6.30pm. The debates will be recorded by Radio New Zealand, so latecomers will not be admitted to the theatre.

The series, now its sixth year, provides an opportunity to debate two highly relevant topics relating to the Treaty of Waitangi as New Zealand’s founding document, to examine the Treaty’s impact on society today, and to consider what its implications are for the future.

‘Each year we have selected topics that have been in the news, and of concern to New Zealanders, especially in terms of relationships between M*ori and the State*, said Dr Orange.

*Subjects have ranged from the country*s fisheries to the Foreshore and Seabed Act, to constitutional changes and the M*ori seats in Parliament.*

The first debate, on 28 January, features a biographer and his subject debating the development of Māori activism over the past 30 to 40 years. Professor Paul Spoonley, of Massey University, published his biography of academic and activist Dr Ranginui Walker last year. How will Dr Walker respond to his work as seen through Professor Spoonley’s lens?

Professor Mason Durie, also of Massey University, and political commentator Colin James take the stage on 4 February to debate the Treaty of Waitangi; how future relationships may evolve; and possible options for the country to move forward.

The Treaty Debates are organised in partnership with the New Zealand Centre for Public Law. As well as being recorded and broadcast by Radio New Zealand, Te Papa will also post video recordings of the debates on its website on the Monday following each debate.
The Treaty Debates 2010

January 28 and February 4

6.30pm – 7.45pm

Soundings Theatre, Level 2

Te Papa

Free entry

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

DR CLAUDIA ORANGE

Dr Claudia Orange is Collections and Research Group Director at Te Papa. She leads the Museum’s research, curatorial, and collection management teams in the five major collections areas – Art, History, Pacific, Mātauranga Māori, and Natural Environment. Claudia began her current position at Te Papa in July 2009. She previously held the position of Director of History and Pacific Cultures at the Museum.

Before coming to Te Papa, Claudia was General Editor of the multi-volume Dictionary of New Zealand Biography (1990–2003). She oversaw the Dictionary’s move online in 2002. During this period, Claudia also served as Acting Chief Historian at the Department of Internal Affairs (1997–2000). Claudia has published widely on New Zealand history, particularly race relations and the Treaty of Waitangi. An Illustrated History of the Treaty of Waitangi (2004) is among her more recent publications.

PAUL SPOONLEY

Paul Spoonley holds a personal chair in Sociology at Massey University. He began his academic research in the mid-1970s on local reactions to the arrival of Pacific migrants. Since then, he has researched and written on Pākehā identity, Māori-Pākehā relations, right-wing extremism and anti-Semitism. Currently, he heads a major research project on the settlement of immigrants in contemporary New Zealand (www.integrationofimmigrants.co.nz).

He is the author or editor of more than 20 books, including Mata Toa: The Life and Times of Ranginui Walker (Penguin, 2009). He was the recipient of the Royal Society Science and Technology Medal in 2009, and he will be taking up a Fulbright Senior Scholarship at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2010 to research the identities of second generation Latino and Pacific youth.

DR RANGINUI WALKER

Ranginui Walker, of the Whakatohea iwi, is an academic, author, biographer, historian, commentator, activist, and iwi consultant. He has been Professor and Head of Māori Studies at the University of Auckland, and since his retirement has been on the Waitangi Tribunal, appointed in 2003. For many years, Dr Walker published a regular column in the New Zealand Listener which educated the public on Māori issues, and formed the basis of one of his first books, Ka Whawhai Tonu Matou – Struggle Without End. His many publications now include He Tipua, his highly acclaimed biography of Sir Apirana Ngata, and most recently Tohunga Whakairo (2008), a biography of the late Paki Harrison (Ngāti Porou), one of New Zealand’s greatest master carvers. Dr Walker received the honour of the Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2009.



PROFESSOR MASON DURIE

Mason Durie, of Ngāti Kauwhata, Ngāti Raukawa, and Rangitane, is Professor of Māori Research and Development at Massey University in Palmerston North. As a psychiatrist, Professor Durie has focused much of his research on Māori health, but his interests range over all the issues facing Māori in the 20th and 21st centuries, including constitutional change. He is widely published on health and Māori issues, his most recent book being Nga Tai Matatu: tides of Endurance (2005). Professor Durie is a Companion of the Order of New Zealand.

Colin James

Colin James is an Associate of the Institute of Policy Studies, Victoria University of Wellington. A political journalist for more than 30 years, he is the author of six books, writes weekly columns in the Dominion Post and other Fairfax newspapers, and the Otago Daily Times, and a monthly column in Management magazine. He has correctly forecast which political party would be (or would lead) the Government in 13 of the past 14 elections.

Colin also analyses and forecasts the policy environment in which businesses and other organisations must operate. He runs a forecasting service, the Hugo Group (www.TheHugoGroup.com), which has 100 medium and large corporate members at CEO level.