Defying settler colonialism - from Palestine to New Zealand
Far from the killing grounds of Gaza, an incredible display of defiance to settler colonialism has broken out in, of all places, New Zealand. The two projects - Israel and New Zealand’s - are linked more than many would like to think. Palestinian leaders raise their voices in support of New Zealand’s Māori people at this critical moment.
New Zealand's historic week kicked off with a war cry by a wahine toa (woman warrior) in the parliament viewed by millions around the world. The trigger was a piece of legislation that had just been tabled, seeking to up-end 50 years of steady progress on legal and cross-communal understanding of indigenous Māori rights.
Don’t mess with the Treaty. Uproar in the New Zealand Parliament as the Treaty Principles Bill is tabled.
Dispensing with parliamentary protocol, Hana-Rawhiti Kareariki Maipi-Clarke MP launched into a haka (rhythmic dance/ritual challenge) as she tore up a copy of the Treaty Principles bill. Half of New Zealand were thrilled; half were outraged.
On Tuesday tens of thousands of New Zealanders of all races flooded the centre of Wellington in the largest, most colourful, song-filled protest the city has ever seen. Earlier, Palestinian leaders across Aotearoa (New Zealand) issued a joint statement calling for support for the hīkoi (march):
“Over the last year, thousands of iwi Māori, Pākehā and tauiwi [non-Māori New Zealanders] have stood with us for Palestinian rights. We call on supporters of the Palestinian cause – a cause for justice, freedom and self-determination – to do what is in alignment with these values. Standing against settler colonialism in Palestine means standing against it here too.”
At stake for Māori are their fundamental political, economic and social rights that are enshrined in the 1840 treaty Te Tiriti o Waitangi. These include water, fishing and land rights but also being consulted or formally represented in the nation’s major institutions. Enduring consequences for Māori of generations of land confiscations and trampling of customary rights are evidenced in significantly lower education, health, housing and social outcomes. Instead of putting the colonial period behind us, the introduction of the Treaty Principles Bill suggests a continuation of settler colonial strategies.
For proponents of the bill, tabled by the neo-conservative ACT party with the support of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s National Party, this is about ensuring “all New Zealanders have equal rights” and that Parliament, not the courts, decide the fundamentals of the legal relationship between Māori and the Crown.
Honour the Treaty
45,OOO people made their voices heard in the heart of Wellington.
Forty-two of the King's Counsels, the country’s senior legal experts, have called on the government to abandon the bill which in their view “seeks to rewrite the Treaty itself”.
Their letter states that it is not for the government of the day to reinterpret treaties, and that existing principles (including partnership, active protection, equity and redress) are "designed to reflect the spirit and intent of the Treaty as a whole and the mutual obligations and responsibilities of the parties". These principles, they say, now represent "settled law".
In the words of the late Professor Whatarangi Winiata, his people face an existential challenge outlined in his book "The Survival of the Māori as a people”. He said the Crown “should pay careful attention to the development and maintenance of a respectful Tiriti-based relationship”.
Using parliament to attempt to bulldoze a reinterpretation of treaty principles is quite the opposite of that. A legal agreement between an indigenous population and settlers (Crown) will be subjected to tyranny of the majority, a “popular vote” on a legal document and issues of law governing the relationship between two parties.
And this is where the link to Israel is made. Local Palestinian leaders addressed New Zealand this week: “We are joined in an intergenerational and global struggle without end. Let us build the movements capable of bringing about a more just future from Aotearoa [New Zealand] to Palestine.”
Noteworthy is the fact that the political parties advancing this legalistic manoeuvre are also those that are supporting fellow settler colonial Israel’s “right to defend itself”. Our government has designated Hamas as a terrorist organisation but has chosen not to join South Africa’s case against Israel at the ICJ even as Israel pushes into the West Bank and seeks to take part of Lebanon. Our government has sent troops to attack Yemen to help lift the Houthi blockade of Israel’s Red Sea port but it suspended funding for Palestinian victims of the US-Israel attack on Gaza (a pathetic $1 million). We exercise with the Israeli military, share intelligence, host an Israeli embassy, trade with Israel, welcome IDF soldiers for holidays but block Palestinian refugees, refuse to recognise the state of Palestine and mumble platitudes in lieu of calling genocide by its name.
Wonderfully good-natured though this month's protests were, it was patently clear that Māori will not be put back in the box. One of the chants I heard throughout the day was:
“Ka whawhai tonu matou, ake, ake, ake!” We will fight on forever and ever. It reminds me greatly of the Palestinian determination not to be erased as a people.
“Ka whawhai tonu matou, ake, ake, ake”, was originally a defiant riposte to a call to surrender to the British and settler colonial forces at the 1864 battle of Ōrākau. Defeated, the Waikato Māori had thousands of square kilometres of land stolen from them.
At Ōrākau, our white forces slaughtered Māori women and men as they attempted to flee – bayoneting the already-wounded as they lay defenceless, which I think helps partially explain the many Palestinian flags I saw during the protests. Māori in large numbers stand in solidarity with Palestine. Like the Yemeni, like the Vietnamese, like the Palestinians, like the Aborigines, like Kanaks, Africans and Native Americans, Māori know all too well what siege, slaughter and famine mean.
To hear “Ka whawhai tonu matou ake ake ake” ring in Wellington’s streets is a powerful reminder that our treaty partners are not to be trod on. They are more numerous, better organised, more politicised, economically better resourced than at any time in the past 100 years – and are in absolutely no mood to be sidelined by a government that seeks to trade social cohesion for votes from the most reactionary parts of the population.
If these politicians were a little smarter, they would see that imposing a “one-nation” solution is a terrible idea. Perhaps the most common placard at Māori protest events over the past 50 years has been “Honour the Treaty”. A great way to do that is to spend a decade getting us all to better understand our own history, the facts of the treaty, its nuances, the dreadful consequences for Māori of the settlers dishonouring it, and above all, to try to step outside our shoes and to understand the way our treaty partner views these things.
It’s called empathy. The ACT and National Parties that govern New Zealand lack empathy for Māori, for Palestinians, for Yemeni people, for Lebanese people, for all sorts of people who do not fit within the Western worldview they grimly cling to.
A better world is possible. Ka whawhai tonu matou. Ake. Ake. Ake.
Eugene Doyle
