It was a rare national meeting that was expected to attract 3,000 attenders.
Instead, 10,000 were there, Māori leaders and their families pouring into Tūrangawaewae – the seat of the Māori King – in a mighty display of unity against New Zealand government policies that risk unwinding decades of progress for Māori rights and wellbeing.
“There was a massive feeling of solidarity,” says Te Rawhitiroa Bosch, a photographer, affiliated with the Northland iwi [tribe] Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Kahu, of Saturday’s gathering. “When you turn up and there are 10,000 people there and it takes half an hour to find a park – it makes you feel something.”
Bosch had attended the hui [meeting] alongside his iwi, in response to proposals from what he calls the “three-headed taniwha [monster] – the current government”.
The coalition government – led by National’s Christopher Luxon and with the populist New Zealand First leader, Winston Peters, and Act party libertarian David Seymour sharing the deputy prime minister role – has announced it will repeal or review at least a dozen policies that provide for Māori. This includes rolling back initiatives designed to improve Māori health outcomes, stopping “race-based” policies, and minimising Māori language use in the public service.
The government has said services should be provided on the basis of need, not race, and prime minister Luxon has often said the government intends to “deliver outcomes for everybody”.
As part of the National and Act coalition agreement, the government has also opened the door to a review of the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, or Treaty of Waitangi, which upholds Māori rights, including the right to autonomy and protection of Māori interests – a move some critics have called a “modern day confiscation of treaty rights” and part of a wider “anti-Māori” policy direction. The Treaty, an agreement reached in 1840 between Māori and the Crown, is not a legal document but its principles to uphold Māori rights are woven into legislation.
The government’s direction is “fear based”, Bosch says. He challenges the government and its supporters to ask themselves why Māori should not seek equity. “We’re in the negatives for all of the statistics.”
“Just about everything the [government] is doing is reinforcing colonial ideologies, and that’s why people turned up in such numbers.”
Late last year, Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII issued an extremely rare royal proclamation asking iwi to meet to “unify the nation and ensure all voices are heard when holding the new coalition government to account” as tensions flared between Māori and the new rightwing government, elected in late 2023.
The call was heard. On Saturday, iwi members from across the country turned up in droves – some had been bussed in convoys from the North, some had flown in from the South, others arrived on horseback; a trail of red, white and black tino rangatiratanga [self-determinaton] flags shimmering behind them.
The last time the marae had attracted such numbers was in 2006, at the tangi [funeral] of the late Māori Queen, Dame Te Atairangikaahu. But Waikato-Tanui, the hosting iwi, came prepared – marquees were set up to accommodate the overflow and thousands of packaged lunches were handed out. As the summer heat bore down, hundreds of children sought solace in the cool of the nearby Waikato River, while inside the marae, speeches, laughter and cheers rang out.
‘A treaty-illiterate government’
Prior to the event, many iwi held their own separate hui, to discuss their primary concerns, positions and what they could offer.
“Iwi came under their own mana [authority] – and that is important,” Bosch says. “This [was] an important time for iwi from all over the motu [island] to come and find a way forward together,” he said. “This is galvanising us … now I want to see if our korero [discussion] has teeth … if it will form into action on the ground.”
The hui is the first of three major events in the political calendar over the next few weeks – ahead of Rātana and Waitangi Day – and is likely to set the tone for discussions over the Māori relationship with the Crown, and the government’s direction.
One of the first speakers of the day, Anglican Archbishop Don Tamihere, recalled a time three decades ago, when a previous bishop told the visiting late Queen Elizabeth II that the Crown was not honouring the treaty. “Here we are, 34 years later, wondering if the message needs to be the same,” he said.
“Because somebody, somewhere, has made the political calculation that they can vilify te iwi Māori, that they can demonise te iwi Māori, that they can renegotiate our existence and the taonga [treasure] that you hold dear, knowing that it will cost them nothing and yet [for] te iwi Māori, it will cost us everything.”
On Friday, alarm about potential changes to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi were further inflamed, after a draft memo detailing the proposed changes was leaked from the Ministry of Justice.
In a searing speech delivered to the crowd on Saturday, indigenous rights lawyer Dayle Takitimu, of Apanui and Porourangi descent, sounded a warning over the proposal and what she described as a “treaty-illiterate” government.
Takitimu accused the government of promoting “white supremacist” views, adding: “We have seen that as recently as last evening, when the leaked document that has spread throughout Māoridom and social media, was received that absolutely strips the tapu [sacred] and the mana out of the treaty arrangement that we have with the Crown.”
Luxon did not attend the hui, instead sending the minister for Māori development, Tama Potaka, and MP Dan Bidois.
Speaking to media at the hui, Potaka said Takitimu’s accusations about the creep of white supremacy within the government was “premature”, but he recognised that some Māori were feeling alienated. “I think there’s confronting comments all over our communities and all over society at the moment,” he said.
‘Just be Māori’
Kiingi Tuheitia took the podium late in the day, after a series of break-out sessions to discuss particular concerns, where he too singled out the government’s proposed treaty changes.
“By turning up we’ve sent a strong message and that’s the message that has been heard around the world.”
The Kiingi said he wanted the Treaty to be entrenched in constitutional law, to avoid exposing it to the whims of the Government of the day, and urged Māori to understand the treaty through their reo and tikanga [customs].
Where some iwi, such as Te Arawa, signalled their intent to secede from the Crown, should the government not take heed of their concerns, others, including the Kiingi took a more conciliatory tone towards action.
“The best protest we can do right now, is be Māori,” he said.
“Be who we are, live our values, speak our reo, care for our mokopuna [children], our awa [rivers], our maunga [mountains], just be Māori – Māori all day, every day, we are here, we are strong.”
