Tribunal releases report on Te Paparahi o Te Raki inquiry

On 23 December 2022, the Waitangi Tribunal released a pre-publication version of part 1 of Tino Rangatiratanga me te Kāwanatanga: The Report on Stage 2 of the Te Paparahi o Te Raki Inquiry – the second volume of the Te Paparahi o Te Raki (Northland) district inquiry report (Wai 1040). In this volume, the Tribunal found that the Crown’s interactions with Te Raki Māori between 1840 and 1900 breached the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, causing severe and lasting prejudice.

The report follows the Tribunal’s stage 1 report He Whakaputanga me te Tiriti – The Declaration and the Treaty (2014) which concluded that in February 1840 the rangatira who signed te Tiriti in the Bay of Islands and Hokianga did not cede their sovereignty. Rather, they agreed to a relationship in which they and the Governor were to be equal while having different roles and different spheres of influence. This stage 2 report is focused on nineteenth-century issues within 415 claims brought by individuals on behalf of whānau, hapū, and iwi organisations from the Bay of Islands, Hokianga, Whāngārei, Mangakāhia, Whangaroa, and Mahurangi and the Gulf Islands. Key issues concerned land, Māori–Crown political engagement, Crown military actions in these groups’ traditional rohe, and the Crown’s policies towards Māori land during the second half of the nineteenth century. The Tribunal heard the claims during 26 hearings from 2013 to 2017.

A common theme in the claims is the desire of Te Raki Māori to regain their ability to exercise the tino rangatiratanga promised to them in te Tiriti. Overall, the Tribunal found that the Crown overstepped the bounds of its kāwanatanga (authority to govern) in Te Raki between 1840 and 1900, leading to the erosion of Te Raki Māori rangatiratanga.

The Tribunal found that the two proclamations issued by the Queen’s representative, Captain William Hobson, in May 1840 declaring the Crown’s sovereignty over the North Island and then all the islands of New Zealand breached the principles of the Treaty, as Te Raki Māori who signed te Tiriti had not in fact ceded sovereignty. When negotiating te Tiriti, the Crown did not clarify to Te Raki Māori that it intended to establish a government and legal system under its sole control, nor did it explain that it would assert sovereignty over the whole country, the Tribunal concluded.

The Tribunal also found that the Crown seriously breached the Treaty before and during the 1844–46 Northern War, in which Ngāpuhi clashed with British forces. The Crown rejected opportunities to talk with Ngāpuhi leaders about their concerns the Treaty was being ignored and instead took military action against them. Among other failures, it initiated attacks on pā and kāinga, made the surrender of land a condition of peace, and did not adequately consider the welfare of non-combatants. These Crown actions had severe short- and long-term effects on Ngāpuhi, the Tribunal concluded.

The Crown’s investigations into pre-1840 land transactions (‘old land claims’) also breached the Treaty, the Tribunal found. Prior to 1840, Māori had transacted land with settlers within the context of their own laws, and rangatira expected the Crown to seek their agreement on the nature, shape, and processes for any investigation into these transactions. However, after 1840 the Crown imposed its own processes for determining land rights in these investigations, supplanting the tikanga of Te Raki Māori without their consent. The Tribunal concluded that the Crown’s imposition of English legal concepts, the granting of absolute freehold title to settlers, and its own subsequent taking of the surplus were effectively a raupatu (confiscation) of Te Raki Māori tino rangatiranga over thousands of acres of their land.

The Tribunal also determined that the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852, which transferred authority from imperial to colonial Government, breached Treaty principles. The Act did not allow for Māori representation in Parliament until four seats were added in 1867. The Crown had promised to protect Māori interests and independence under the Treaty, but it failed to build these protections into the constitution. Instead, it progressively handed governmental authority to the settler population, fundamentally undermining the Treaty relationship. Governors Thomas Gore Browne and George Grey sought different solutions to provide for Māori involvement in the governance of their communities, such as the Kohimarama Rūnanga (a national rūnanga of Māori leaders) in 1860, and Grey’s district rūnanga (intended to provide limited powers of local self-government) in 1861. However, despite Te Raki Māori support for these initiatives, both were short-lived and gave way to directly assimilationist institutions such as the Native Land Court.

The Crown committed other Treaty breaches relating to land, including through its purchasing policies and practices between 1840 and 1865 and the introduction of the Native Land Court and native land laws in the 1860s. The Crown’s imposition from 1862 of a new land-tenure system that individualised title to Māori customary land, making it more vulnerable to partition, fragmentation, and alienation, was particularly devastating for Te Raki Māori, the Tribunal concluded. This system undermined community control over whenua, eroding the cultural, political, and economic organisation of hapū. It also brought large-scale land loss, with Māori retaining only a third of the inquiry district by 1900. The Tribunal found that the Crown’s nineteenth-century land policies inflicted deep and enduring damage on Te Raki Māori, and it noted that the district remains one of the most economically deprived parts of New Zealand today.

Te Raki Māori responded to the Crown’s policies of the late nineteenth century with renewed efforts to assert their tino rangatiratanga. The Tribunal’s report sets out the steps Te Raki Māori and other northern hapū and iwi took to establish regular regional parliaments at Waitangi and Ōrākei. During the 1890s, they helped lead attempts by the Kotahitanga movement to establish a national Māori parliament recognised by the Crown. However, the Crown rejected or ignored their proposals for Māori self-government and was unwilling to recognise any significant transfer of authority from colonial institutions. The Tribunal found that this was a historically unique opportunity to make provision in New Zealand’s constitutional arrangements for Māori tino rangatiratanga at a national level.

The Tribunal made a number of recommendations to support the Crown and Te Raki Māori in future Treaty settlement negotiations. It recommended that the Crown acknowledge the Treaty agreement it entered into with Te Raki rangatira in 1840 and that it 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 into discussions 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.

For all media inquiries, please contact the Ministry of Justice media centre(external link).

 

Please note that the pre-publication version has been taken down as Tino Rangatiratanga me te Kāwanatanga is now available in its final, published form:

Volume 1 [PDF, 19.7 MB](external link)
Volume 2, [PDF, 19.3MB](external link)
Volume 3, [PDF, 17.7MB](external link)

 

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