On Saturday 9 December 2023, the first part of Tino Rangatiratanga me te Kāwanatanga: The Report on Stage 2 of the Te Paparahi o Te Raki Inquiry was handed over to claimants at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds. During the ceremony, panel members presented copies of the published report to hapū representatives from the Bay of Islands, Hokianga, Whāngārei, Mangakāhia, Whangaroa, and Mahurangi and the Gulf Islands. Approximately 500 people from around Northland, claimants living outside the district, and representatives of the Crown were present for the handover. The panel for stage 2 of the Te Paparahi o te Raki inquiry comprised Judge Craig Coxhead (presiding officer), the late Professor Ranginui Walker, Dr Ann Parsonson, Dr Robyn Anderson, and the late Dr Kihi Ngatai.
Tino Rangatiratanga me te Kāwanatanga was first released online on 22 December 2022. It considered 415 claims brought by individuals, whānau, hapū, and iwi organisations. The Tribunal received the claims between 1985 and 2008, and heard them during 26 hearings from March 2013 to October 2017. Part 1 of the report focused on claims and evidence relating to the nineteenth century. It follows the Tribunal’s stage 1 report, He Whakaputanga me te Tiriti / The Declaration and the Treaty: Report on Stage 1 of the Te Paparahi o Te Raki Inquiry, which concluded that the rangatira who signed te Tiriti in the Bay of Islands and Hokianga in February 1840 did not cede their sovereignty.
Crown - Māori political engagement was a central issue in the inquiry and is addressed in three chronologically organised chapters. The first of these chapters considered the Crown’s steps to declare sovereignty over New Zealand. In May 1840, Captain William Hobson issued two proclamations asserting the Crown’s sovereignty over the North Island, and then all of New Zealand. The Tribunal concluded it was clear from the wording of the May proclamations, reflecting the wording of the English text of the treaty, that the British considered a ‘cession’ of sovereignty had taken place. The Tribunal found by proclaiming sovereignty over the northern island of New Zealand in this way, the Crown acted inconsistently with the guarantees of te Tiriti - the te reo treaty text which Te Raki rangatira signed.
The frustration of some northern Māori with the trajectory of the treaty relationship lay behind Hōne Heke’s fellings of the flagstaff on Maiki Hill in late 1844 and early 1845. The Tribunal described these fellings as a challenge to the Crown’s encroachment on Ngāpuhi tino rangatiratanga and a signal that the Crown should meet with them and resolve issues of relative authority. It found the Crown rejected opportunities to talk with Ngāpuhi leaders about their concerns the treaty was being ignored and instead took military action against them.
Throughout the conflict that followed, the Tribunal found the Crown was the aggressor, using military force to impose the sovereignty it believed had been acquired in 1840. It initiated attacks on pā and kāinga, destroying homes, property, waka, and food stores. Furthermore, the Crown took advantage of divisions within Ngāpuhi during the war, and failed to adequately consider the welfare of non-combatants affected by its military campaigns.
In chapter 6 of the report, the Tribunal considered the Crown’s policies for the investigation of pre-1840 land transactions. Before signing te Tiriti, Te Raki Māori had transacted land with settlers within the context of their own laws, and the tikanga of tuku whenua. However, through the work of the first land claims commission, and the subsequent bodies established to investigate old land claims, the Crown seized the power to determine the process for identifying land rights, and Te Raki Māori tikanga was supplanted without their consent or involvement in decision-making. The Tribunal found the Crown’s imposition of English legal concepts and its own subsequent taking of surplus lands were effectively a raupatu of Māori tino rangatiratanga over thousands of acres of land in Te Raki.
In chapter 7, the Tribunal discussed the major constitutional change that occurred during the 1850s and 1860s, fundamentally affecting the treaty relationship in Te Raki. These changes began with the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852, which established a bicameral national legislature comprising a lower house of representatives to be elected by settlers, and an appointed upper house. The first act of the New Zealand General Assembly was to pass a resolution calling for responsible government, that is, settler self-government. When this was granted, the Governor at first retained responsibility for decisions on Māori affairs himself, arguing that this would give Māori better protection. However, the settler government gradually assumed responsibility for Māori affairs.
In te Tiriti, the Crown had promised to protect Māori in possession of their lands, in the exercise of their chiefly authority, and in their independence. Yet the Crown failed to build any of these safeguards into the new constitution. Instead, the Tribunal found the Crown progressively transferred authority to the very settler population from which it had promised to protect Māori.
Governors Thomas Gore Browne and Grey sought different solutions to provide for Māori involvement in the governance of their communities, such as the Kohimarama Rūnanga in 1860, and Grey’s district rūnanga in 1861. However, despite Te Raki Māori support for these initiatives, both were short-lived and they gave way to directly assimilationist institutions such as the Native Land Court.
In chapters 8, 9 and 10 the Tribunal reviewed the alienation of Māori land through the Crown’s exercise of pre-emptive purchasing between 1840 and 1865; the establishment of the Native Land Court as a judicial system for determining and individualising title to customary Māori land; and continued land purchasing and loss during the late nineteenth century. The Tribunal found the Crown’s imposition of a new system of land tenure from 1862 was particularly devastating – not just to Te Raki Māori land ownership, but to the structures and practices underpinning the cultural, political, and economic organisation of hapū. The overall effect of the Crown’s nineteenth century land policies, often conducted on the ground by Crown purchase agents in ways that breached the treaty, was that only one-third of the district remained in Māori ownership by 1900. By the end of the nineteenth century, many Te Raki Māori lacked sufficient land for sustenance, let alone to support the future development and participation in the colonial economy they had expected in 1840. Certain hapū were virtually landless.
The final substantive chapter of this report concerned the efforts of Te Raki Māori to assert their tino rangatiratanga in the late nineteenth century. They established committees to mediate internal disputes and manage relationships with settlers and the colonial Government, and engaged with other northern tribes to establish regular regional parliaments at Waitangi, Ōrākei, and elsewhere. Te Raki Māori also sought accommodation with the Kīngitanga and took lead roles in the Kotahitanga movement’s attempts to establish a national Māori parliament and local institutions of self-government recognised by the Crown during the 1890s.
The Tribunal considered Kotahitanga leaders sought no more than the Crown’s legal recognition for local komiti and national paremata that were already operating. However, the Crown rejected or ignored their proposals, and in particular was unwilling to recognise any significant transfer of authority from colonial institutions. The Tribunal found the Crown’s failure to recognise and respect Te Raki rangatiratanga over this period was a breach of the treaty and its principles.
The Tribunal concluded its report with a number of recommendations to support the Crown and Te Raki Māori in future treaty settlement negotiations. As a first step towards the settlement of these grievances, the Tribunal recommended the Crown acknowledge the treaty agreement it entered with Te Raki rangatira in 1840 and apologise for its treaty breaches. It also recommended the Crown return all Crown-owned land in the district to Te Raki Māori; provide economic compensation; and enter discussion with Te Raki Māori to determine appropriate constitutional processes and institutions at the national, iwi, and hapū levels to recognise, respect, and give effect to their treaty rights.