Māori: Te Tiriti o Waitangi/The Treaty of Waitangi

As I mention after Te Tiriti o Waitangi signing, many disputed the lands in the previous blog. The lands’ disputed land led to land wars between British military groups/The Crown and Māori men to prevent the lands’ ownerships. It was the violent battles from 1820 to 1872, and many lands were confiscations of land from Māori deemed to have ‘borne arms against the Crown’. Note the Crown was under the government under the New Zealand Settlements Act 1863. 

Bear in mind, the population of the Māori people was estimated 90,000 and 100,000 and the European population was estimated 2,000 before the 1860s. Who arrives and discover Aotearoa/New Zealand? The people who discovered Aotearoa – Māori people around c1800. Clearly, the answer is Māori people discovered our country, not the European. Yes, several whalers and sealers came and cut down trees for their ships and flaxes to make ropes, trades and foods. BUT it was not friendly encountered within the Māori people on the shores. The problems were breaking the Māori people’s belief where the areas are tapu (sacred, with “spiritual restriction” or “implied prohibition”), or mistreated Māori people, especially the young women. From the 1800s, the first war was called the Musket Wars – Taua as the whalers/sealers bought muskets and iron tools to our country as a new technology for killing animals and unfortunately the warriors from other tribal villages -the tribal warfares around the North Island. Many Māori people fled to the South Island and lived there until today. The earliest war was the result of a hapū (“subtribe”, or “clan”) and families over a likely prospect, to fall in love with a woman from a different hapū and many other issues. It is like the American Indians or Aboriginal Australians families and their histories. One of the books, I read The Musket Wars by late Michael King, an author, historian, and lecturer to the University of Waikato where I studied in History.

Many British people came to live in New Zealand as a new life from the 1840s – colonisation. Still, Māori people suffered greatly in disease and illness because they had no immunity against many of the virulent diseases they brought with them. The population of the Māori people decided sharply to 42,000. Wow! It is not just virulent diseases. It is the poverty, living condition like overcrowding and unhygienic, inability to access foods from the land that no longer belong to the Māori people, poor diets, and high rate alcohol and life expectancy. Several Māori children became disabilities such as D/deaf, Blind, and these disabilities lead many Māori people/families thinking of tapu or curse impacted on them. Today there are many organisations such as Kāpō Māori Aotearoa (Blind – Kāpō), Turi Māori (D/deaf and Hard of Hearing impaired).

Not just the land confiscations, the te Reo Māori was banned in education and force many Māori children to speak the English language in schools around Aotearoa/New Zealand. Of course, there was no sign language these days before the 1820s because many ancient Māori histories were an oral culture, myths, whakapapa (family generation) and songs in records today.

Today, many people are learning about our Te Tiriti o Waitangi/The Treaty of Waitangi at schools, and many cultural events that everyone celebrates and blends with Māori people/children around Aotearoa. Wait a minute – what about Turi Māori (D/deaf and Hard of Hearing impaired)?

In the 1980s, late Patrick Thompson (QSM) went to the same school as me and asked me why my mother studied in Māori at the University of Waikato. I recalled asking him if he understood where he came from, his iwi, whakapapa and other interest. He replied that he had no idea at all for he did not notice his Whānau background. I asked him to sign/talked to Stephanie Awheto – a trilingual interpreter. Thompson was shocked to see many Turi Māori (D/deaf) students who have no experience, ideas about Māori cultures, identity, stories, Haka Kapa, whakapapa when he was as Residential Social Worker in the early 1990s. In 1993, Thompson established the first National Hui for Māori Deaf at Orakei Marae, and Thompson became a trilingual person in NZSL (New Zealand Sign Language), Te Reo and English. He was the significant person to raise strong awareness of the need for sign language in te Reo and NZSL in the video, books, marae and education for ALL Turi Māori (D/deaf) in Aotearoa. Sadly Thompson passed away in 2014 that huge impacted the Turi Māori (D/deaf) community and interpreters, including myself.

Slowly today, the Ministry of Education and Ko Taku Reo (formerly Kelston and Van Asch Deaf Education Centre) along with the government – Office for Disability Issues and New Zealand Sign Language Board, are working together to produce more books, videos in myths and songs for many Turi Māori (D/deaf) children/students. Bear in mind! – there is no full te Reo Sign Language, only the sign language of Māori concepts.

I pasted the link to watch this Te Tiriti o Waitangi in New Zealand Sign Language https://youtu.be/7etb-hbW-yY and unfortunately there is no caption available, but there is a link to http://The NZSL is based on the Māori version of the Treaty of Waitangi: https://treatytimes30dotorg.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/f_6984_nzt_treatyx30.pdf

There are many resources about Te Tiriti o Waitangi on the websites. I pasted several links which are useful for reading materials. https://nzhistory.govt.nz/files/documents/Timeline.pdf and http://newzealandwars.co.nz/land-wars-timeline/

I am enclosing the video of the story in NZSL here. Enjoy watching this video. Rūaumoko – The Rumbling Voice https://vimeo.com/173841350

Here is the latest update in NZSL for the Treaty of Waitangi. http://www.treatypeople.org/easyread-nzsl/?fbclid=IwAR2W6h8q3AgPt6BBqlKkXJyQRvKjTJuLYXH5eF7UHqWJIrofiiU6FdOh9TQ