TREATY PRINCIPLES BILL SUBMISSION
DECEMBER 2024 by LILLIAN MURRAY
In November this year, hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders participated in a nationwide Indigenous-led hikoi in support of Te Tiriti o Waitangi – signed in 1840 by rangatira Māori and representatives of the British Crown to welcome settlers on the condition that Māori authority be respected and upheld. This founding covenant is currently under increased threat by a conservative motion to replace Te Tiriti with legislation that effectively institutionalises the retort that ‘all lives matter’, ignoring two hundred years of promises, betrayals and injustices by our Pākehā Crown, serving our country’s ongoing colonisation.
The government is currently receiving submissions about this proposed Treaty Principles Bill. Below is one of the submissions from our Pākehā co-researchers. We have posted this particular one as it is rooted in not just Lillian’s longstanding commitments to decolonisation and emerging, nuanced relationality with her settler ancestors, but also her Christianity – obliging us in Te Rōpū Pākehā to push our colonial-binary-thinking and make space for an anti-colonial Christianity to be possible, indeed to have always already been both here and even necessary for this mahi.
Tēnā koutou, my name is Lillian Murray.
In this submission, I will speak through some of my family identities as a way to articulate my strong rejection of the premise of this Treaty Principles Bill along with its content.
I am Pākehā: a Murray from Cromwell, Te Wai Pounamu (The South Island) who came over from Lanarkshire, Scotland in 1865.
That my ancestors came from lands afar is my first stake in Te Tiriti o Waitangi being protected as it was agreed to in 1840, so that indeed Te Tiriti in turn might continue to protect my rights to belong here.
I am also a Kemp from England, and then the Kerikeri Mission Station in Northland, Aotearoa. My ancestor, Henry Tacy Kemp, eldest of missionaries James and Charlotte Kemp, was a young man of about 17 when he was present at the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi / Te Tiriti o Waitangi on the 6th of Feb. He was a speaker of Te Reo Māori, so understood the discussions, deliberations and speech making. He was employed by the Crown to create with his hands an official facsimile of Te Tiriti o Waitangi which included copying over the tohu and signatures of the chiefs who had already signed. He was textually familiar with Te Tiriti for having done this, as well as contextually familiar for having been there.
His story is a sad one, one I share as a warning to you, and as a second reason for my own position on composting this Treaty Principles Bill.
Despite being so familiar with the Treaty, Henry Tacy Kemp made a decision to betray the promises of protection of Māori land and treasures in Article 2 by creating and executing the Kemp Deed. He and Gov. George Grey did this by threatening Ngāi Tahu, and by lying to them. The Kemp Deed dispossessed Ngāi Tahu of the huge middle Canterbury block of land in the South Island.
Oh, the pain of betrayal. Betrayal of his own Christian upbringing to love neigbour as he loved himself. Betrayal of the covenant of Waitangi, and a betrayal of an inheritance of honourable identity for his descendants.
I feel you are in a similar position to what Kemp was in. There has been a long understanding of what Te Tiriti o Waitangi has meant. The gathering and expression of this understanding is thanks to the Waitangi Tribunal. Therefore, you, like Kemp, have every opportunity to know what the Treaty means. You, like Kemp, are in a position of choice to betray our Treaty Partner, in this case, by robbing the Treaty of meaningful ability to effect laws and policies. Which, let it be added, would be a betrayal to me and my people of my own moral place to stand in this beloved land.
On behalf of your descendants, and mine, please don’t do this. Te Tiriti o Waitangi as it was and is, is a beautiful foundation to build upon. Every betrayal of this oath beloads the next generations with such huge responsibilities to attempt to heal those wounds. I feel tired for your descendants if the mana of the Treaty is damaged by you letting this bill go through.
Here is an articulation of my affections for Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Please hear in it the depths from which I recommend you scrap this Bill.
I love our Treaty of Waitangi
I love how it’s of us, I love how it’s of God
I revere with a tenderness the fragile circumstances of its birth
I love the warm night sky that dwelled above the wānanga before the first signing
I love the prayers that were prayed
I love the karakia that were incanted
I squeeze the Treaty’s open hands to me and my peoples
That if I could hold onto our vows, I could be held in belonging here
I love that me and my people were named as different
And blessed to govern ourselves as we would see fit to live into our highest humanity
(We have work to do and agency to do it)
I love that it meant Māori would continue to lead their own destinies
Blessed is my life for Māori leading their own destinies!
I have a favourite marriage that I love to be around
Immense is the respect for each others’ differences
Great is the desire of each for the other’s wellness
Our Treaty is like, “I do.”
Our Treaty is like my nana, guiding me how to love
Let’s call our firstborn, Treaty
I love our Treaty’s older sibling, He Whakaputanga.
A lighthouse in choppy seas.
I love our Treaty like I love a field that smells like jasmine, bonfires, and fresh morning dew all at once.
A field big enough to give each other space, and big enough to play on together.
Our Treaty is a greenstone entranceway, carved deeply with beautiful intentions
An enduring commitment to right relations
“Tēnei te kare kau, te kare ā roto e”
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Finally, I leave you with a passage from the Bible, the book of Psalms chapter 15.
“Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent?
Who may live on your holy mountain?
The one whose walk is blameless,
who does what is righteous,
who speaks the truth from their heart;
whose tongue utters no slander,
who does no wrong to a neighbor,
and casts no slur on others;
who despises a vile person
but honors those who fear the Lord,
who keeps an oath even when it hurts,
and does not change their mind;
who lends money to the poor without interest;
who does not accept a bribe against the innocent.
Whoever does these things
will never be shaken.”
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Let us be people who keep our oath even when it hurts,
Let us not change our mind. Toitū Te Tiriti.
With love,
Lillian Murray
