Speech: The challenge and opporunities for personal identity within a global community - Rahui Katene

Victoria University; Hunter Council Chamber; Wellington
Wednesday 20 July 2011; 5pm- 6.30pm

'The challenge and opportunities for personal identity within a global community'

'Seminar on Global Citizenship'

Rahui Katene, MP for Te Tai Tonga

Just under three weeks ago, 1000 pages were released into the atmosphere; the latest report of the Waitangi Tribunal; a report which had taken 21 years to complete.

The report, Ko Aotearoa Tenei, cast its gaze over more than twenty departments and agencies concerning areas such as language, science and technology, laws, history, systems of property; rituals, ceremonies and art forms.

In its entirety the report could well have been the set text for this discussion; reflecting the challenges and opportunities for personal identity within a global community.

In the first chapter of the report, dealing with taonga works and intellectual property, the Tribunal lays down the challenge, and I quote:

We may well be one of the first Western countries to address these issues directly in domestic law, but then New Zealand has often led the world in the area of indigenous rights.

This is probably partly because of the crucial role Māori culture plays in New Zealand’s national identity, and that in turn is a result of a unique history of conflict and co-operation, the relative size of the Māori population within the national population, and the fact that the country’s particular geography makes physical integration inevitable.

Whatever the reason, New Zealand is in a unique position to develop its own practical standards relevant to its own national context and to lead, perhaps assist, the world in doing so.

I found these comments illuminating, when it comes to reflecting on the rights of basic citizenship and national identity that should express the New Zealand character. What role can our unique national context play in the formation of global citizenship? How does our history of conflict and co-operation help us to establish a distinctive cultural identity of our own?

I want to firstly define the concept of personal identity within a global community.

I do not assume that personal identity is narrowly interpreted as that of an individual. Just as the personal is political, the personal is also cultural.

And so, in my case for instance, my identity is shaped by my whakapapa; connecting me through to the traditions and worldview of Ngati Koata, Ngati Kuia, Ngati Toa, Ngai Tahu; Ngati Mamoe.

My identity is also structured around two significant marae - Ko Takahanga me Mangamaunu. It is located within the shadow of Tapuae o Uenuku te maunga. I am defined through my association to Rangitoto (otherwise known as D’urville Island) and Raukawa. Ko Tainui te waka.

I am really pleased to be here today, in the company of Professor Wally Penetito, who has contributed greatly to our understanding, as New Zealanders, about matters of identity. And if you haven’t already read it, I would refer you all to a key piece of work produced a decade ago, and presented to then Associate Minister of Maori Affairs Hon Tariana Turia.

That report, Te Kawai Ora, was subtitled “Reading the world; reading the word; being the world”; and it shaped our thinking around literacy and biliteracy.

I want to share a comment by Professor Penetito – in full – as I think it really captures so much of what we understand as cultural identity – and its corollary, cultural competency.

Literacy in Mäori terms should include the ability to read and write in both Mäori and English, i.e biliteracy and be able to use that ability competently, i.e. to be functionally biliterate in Mäori and English.
Being literate in Mäori should also include having the capacity to ‘read’ the geography of the land, i.e. to be able to name the main land features of one’s environment (the mountains, rivers, lakes, creeks, bluffs, valleys etc.), being able to recite one’s tribal/hapü boundaries and be able to point them out on a map if not in actuality as well as the key features of adjacent tribal/hapü boundaries and being able to ‘read’ Mäori symbols such as carvings, tukutuku, köwhaiwhai and their context within the wharenui (poupou, heke etc.) and the marae (ätea, ärongo etc.).

Fast forward ten years to the Waitangi Tribunal’s response to the WAI 262 claim, and you would see many of the same concepts referred to in Wally’s korero articulated in that report. In essence, Ko Aotearoa Tenei expresses the view that hapu and iwi have significant relationships with the flora and fauna and a closeknit spiritual association to the wider ecosystem.

The report details our unique hapu and iwi identities as being intimately linked with native plants such as harakeke, koromiko, pohutukawa, kōwhai, puawānanga, poroporo, kawakawa, mānuka and kūmara and in my own case, as Ngati Koata, with the tuatara.

This relationship is underpinned by our own special knowledge of these species, or mātauranga Māori; and the continuing obligations and responsibilities we take up, in the expression of kaitiakitanga.

I believe that the findings of the Waitangi Tribunal into claims concerning law and policy affecting Māori culture and identity set the basis for a national conversation about what it is to be a New Zealander, what it is to live in a nation founded on the Treaty, what it is to live in Aotearoa.

The Tribunal sees a Treaty-compliant framework as being one that is based on partnership and shared decision-making about who should control and manage taonga. It provides an enduring challenge for legislative reform, focussing on the ‘will do’, rather than ‘can do but won’t’ imperatives.

In the 1988 Muriwhenua Fishing Report, the Waitangi Tribunal spoke of the relevance of a document written now, 171 years ago. They said

“Any impracticality today results not from the Treaty but from our failure to heed its terms. The important point is that there was, and still is, room for an agreement to be made”.

The Maori Party has never considered failure to be an option.

Our party has been deeply committed to creating a vision for active citizenship by
· ensuring all legislation is consistent with Te Tiriti o Waitangi;
· advocating for constitutional change in line with Te Tiriti;
· approaching Te Tiriti as a tool for nation-building; and
· ensuring there is sound education and knowledge about Te Tiriti and history of Aotearoa, including resourcing for hapu to document own stories/research.

We have tried to do this in various ways – as a recent example for instance, the Maori Party introduced an amendment into the Royal Society of New Zealand Bill to include in the definition of humanities Māori studies, te reo, and the recognition, application, and advancement of te Tiriti o Waitangi.

But there are other critical opportunities for advancing the ‘will do’ imperative in terms of consolidating and strengthening the understanding New Zealanders have of the status of the Treaty.,

The Maori Party believes our history and our future, is intricately connected to the place of the Treaty as the foundation of our constitution.

A core component of our Coalition Agreement with National was for there to be a group to include constitutional issues including Maori representation. This was announced on 8 December last year, and I am proud to be the Maori Party representative on the cross-party group.

The Constitutional Review is deliberately wide-ranging and will include matters such as the size of Parliament, the length of the electoral term, Maori representation, the role of the Treaty of Waitangi and whether New Zealand needs a written constitution. This is a vital stepping stone into our future arrangements and I am really interested to learn any views that you may have about how the review can usefully promote active citizenship.

But of course the Constitutional Review is not the only way by which we can integrate an understanding of the Treaty in our lives.

I am trying to advance this conversation by a couple of initiatives at the Parliament level.

The first is the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Treaty of Waitangi Act.

This Bill establishes an office to advocate and promote respect for the Treaty of Waitangi - our constitutional framework for citizenship. It sets up a new role of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Treaty of Waitangi to investigate and inquire into and provide advice, information and analysis on any matter relating to the Treaty of Waitangi.

The second initiative is another private members bill which will insert reference to the Treaty of Waitangi into a range of oaths and affirmations. My Bill will add a simple statement : I will uphold the Treaty of Waitangi / Ka whakaungia e au te Tiriti o Waitangi – into a range of core Acts, including the Citizenship Act 1977, the Local Government Act 2002, the Police Act 1958, the Environments Act 1986, the Ombudsmen Act 1975, the Public Audit Act 2001 and the Resource Management Act 1991.

This lecture was inspired by the statement, the challenge and opportunities for personal identity within a global community.

What I hope I have been able to share with you, is the consistent message passed down through the decades, whether it be from the Muriwhenua Report; the words of Professor Penetito, or most recently in the response to WAI 262.

And that message is that we are poised at a crossroads, wherein we can choose to embrace the promise of the Treaty, and celebrate our distinctive cultural identity – our indigenous strength – and the partnership inherent in our founding covenant.

I believe that the Treaty provided us with a clear map forward; in which we live together, as Treaty partners.

But it is a partnership we must willingly invest in – we can not allow for chance. The Waitangi Tribunal has documented, in painstaking detail, the histories of neglect and marginalisation that have become attached to Maori culture and knowledge. We know too much now; we ignore that history at our peril.

Last April, after prolonged and persistent advocacy from the Maori Party, the New Zealand Government signed up to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. That Declaration, negotiated and signed in a spirit of partnership and mutual respect, recognised and reaffirmed that indigenous peoples possess collective rights which are indispensable for their existence, wellbeing and integral development as peoples.

In Aotearoa, the Treaty of Waitangi provides us with the context for appreciating the collective rights of whanau, hapu and iwi; while at the same time guaranteeing a protection of basic citizenship rights.

The time is right for us to honour, to uphold and to advance the opportunity we have to share our unique identity in this wonderful nation of ours, with the wider global community.

Tena tatou katoa