This article was first published on RNZ.
Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Kahu kaumātua Mike Smith says it’s “both tragic and absurd” that the time meant to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi descended into a “public political squabble”.
It comes as Action Station Director Kassie Hartendorp acknowledges a “crisis of leadership” in Te Pāti Māori but points to the “huge tidal wave of support for Te Tiriti,” and a demand for “more than the status quo.”
She told RNZ the focus on Te Pāti Māori meant people were losing sight of “what’s happening happening within Te Ao Maori and in the bigger picture.”
One of the moments of note at last week’s Waitangi commemorations was an interaction between Eru Kapa-Kingi and Kiri Tamihere-Waititi on the marae ātea during the parliamentary pōwhiri, that was linked to the Te Pāti Māori turmoil last year.
During his speech from the haukainga (host) side, Eru Kapa-Kingi told Te Pāti Māori to “sort yourselves out”. Son of MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, he also lambasted the party for expelling his mother “for no reason.”
In response, Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi acknowledged those complaints, “I can hear the anger and feel the pain”.
“If I have done you wrong, I offer you my head,” offering an apology, Waititi also suggested another meeting with Ngāpuhi, after the co-leaders didn’t attend the one organised late last year.
The speech was followed by a haka tautoko which saw Waititi’s wife Kiri Tamihere-Waititi advanced toward Eru Kapa-Kingi.
Waititi said afterward it was a “Māori” thing to do, and what was done on the marae.
The interaction is being discussed at length online, with many outlining their frustration or admiration.
Northland iwi leader Pita Tipene described on social media Waititi’s words as a “clear show of regret, an open apology and a call for reconciliation towards the Kapa-Kingi whanau and to Ngāpuhi given the no-show late last year.”
“I wasn’t the only one who was hearing and ‘feeling’ what was unfolding as others sitting around me were audibly expressing their affirmation towards what Rawiri was saying - at the right place, right time!
“Unfortunately, the focus is now on what quickly followed Rawiri’s speech.
“I’m not trying to ignore that part, I merely want to focus some light on what I admired and what I’m focusing on which is to underscore the ‘kaupapa’ of moving forward.”
Prominent Māori activisit Annette Sykes also wrote on social media that the events that unfolded had left her with a “deep sense of unease” because of “where the energy and anger were directed.”
“We are in the midst of a constitutional crisis. The Treaty Principles Bill, the erosion of Māori rights across health, education, and resource management, the attacks on te reo Māori-these are deliberate, coordinated assaults on our Treaty partnership.
“This Government is testing how far it can push before we push back as a unified force.
“But today, we pushed back against each other and then justified by saying “it’s tikanga”. Was it tikanga though? Or was it utu? Was it a personal grievance and political revenge dressed up as cultural accountability? The context matters. The timing matters. The targets matter.
“The Crown Ministers who stood on that pae today are the ones dismantling our Treaty rights. They are the ones who should have felt the full force of our resistance.”
Another long-time activist Hilda Halkyard-Harawira wrote that it wasn’t “unusual for Māori women to cop flak when challenging conventions on the marae.”
She referenced speakers such as Hana Te Hemara, Titewhai Harawira and Mere Mangu who were criticised.
Halkyard-Harawira said the role of whānau of MPs was to “support not to subvert” and the six elected Māori Party members should “meet alone to come to some agreement quickly.”
“Huhana Lyndon has worked hard for Te Tai Tokerau. She will be hard to beat,” she concluded.
Director at ActionStation Kassie Hartendorp wrote online about the difference between her experience at Waitangi, and what she’d read on the internet.
“At the Waitangi Forum tent, all I heard was wise, powerful words and the joyful bursts of waiata and haka. All I saw was smiles and manaaki and everyone genuinely happy to see each other. Loving, leaderful contributions from the stage, the stalls, the seats.”
“On the internet, all I see is rage and frustration - at what could have been, at wasted energy, at disappointment in our own. Thousands of comments full of clear-sightedness about the high stakes of this election and equally high expectations about the leadership we deserve.”
Hartendorp acknowledged there was a “crisis of leadership” in Te Pāti Māori - “the party we might have placed our hope in, to represent our immense political power has lost a lot of trust.”
“But we are not without leadership across the board. In fact - we have never been more leaderful.
“We have bigger hopes than the status quo, empty performance, ego wars and half-ass policy. We demand more than what we settled for two years ago, and we now need political parties to meet us where we are at.”
Speaking to RNZ about her post, Hartendrop said the past two years had seen “huge attacks” on Te Tiriti and what it had done was force Te Ao Māori and the wider population to “really stand strong and defend Te Tiriti.”
“We now believe in Te Tiriti enough to be able to know when we are not being given the leadership that we deserve, the policies that we deserve, the commitments that we deserve.
“We want to see very serious political decision making around the future of Te Tiriti, and we won’t settle for anything less.”
Smith, a long-time Māori rights activist, wrote on social media that it was “easier to weaken Māori aspirations when we are portrayed as divided, distracted, and disorganised”.
“While cameras are fixed on conflict at Waitangi, while headlines focus on personalities and protest, the real work of extinguishment continues quietly in the background,” Smith said, criticising the process underway to secure a Ngāpuhi Treaty settlement.
Speaking about his post, Smith said the marae ātea was an appropriate place to air grievances, but this was not “in good taste” and he wished they’d get a room to “sort that stuff out.”
He said Te Pāti Māori was still a political party operating within the kāwanatanga or crown framework.
“It’s just kāwanatanga attacking kāwanatanga on a day we were meant to be commemorating the Treaty of Waitangi, and not providing a forum or a platform for political parties, whether or not they’re Māori or any other persuasion, to be attacking each other.”
He said it was a distraction, and that Treaty Settlement Minister Paul Goldsmith was “doing circuits of the region, trying to con some of our people into the treaty extinguishment deal.”
“It’s all that smoke and mirrors.
“On one hand, they’re up there worshipping at the altar of the Treaty of Waitangi. And then, on the other hand, they’re sneaking around the back door trying to kill the treaty as fast as they can.”
Goldsmith said in a statement it came as no surprise there was a “wide variety of views” when discussing a potential Ngāpuhi settlement, “some who are implacably opposed to settling ever, and some who are fully in support.”
He said the government was working through the process as “carefully and constructively as we can.”
By Lillian Hanly of RNZ.
