Mawae Morton

By Mawae Morton

Māori and Maoli share much in common – starting with our central pacific origins and great voyaging migrations across Te Moana nui a Kiwa. Maori voyaged South of Te Piko o Wātea and Hawaiians to the North. Our tūpuna tell us that when we left Hawaiki Nui we were all one people and over time we were also shaped by the places we settled to become new iwi in Aotearoa and Hawai'i.

Despite this separation of time and geography the oral traditions of these places share a familiar story line and are told essentially in the same language – the separation of Rangi and Papa taking us from Te Pō into Te Ao, religious beliefs centered around atua such as Tāne and Tangaroa, natural cycles such as matariki or makahiki, and superhuman feats like those of Maui who fished up our island homes. We also held to the fundamental tenets of pre-contact Polynesian society such as tapu and noa, whakapapa or genealogy and so on.

Our respective histories of colonization are also remarkably similar, while at the same time punctuated by stark differences in important areas and distinct colonizers. Both places and peoples were 'discovered' by Captain Cook and were exposed to many external influences and threats. In 1840, many, but not all, of the Māori chiefs signed a version of the Treaty of Waitangi with the British Crown based on varied translations and understanding of what that would actually entail.

The period after the Treaty of Waitangi led to the individualization of land ownership, a capital economy, widespread loss of Māori land and other important resources, customary rights, traditional leadership structures and sovereignty or self-determination. The intentional destruction of our culture, values, language, communities, leadership structures, political systems economies and religions was so comprehensive that it led to devastating loss and population decline exacerbated by disease.

Within a few years of the Treaty being signed there were conflicts between Māori and settler, but also a period of cooperation that lasted two decades before an era of tremendous loss and sorrow for Māori. In those first decades Māori were the majority, exerted sovereignty and propered. The establishment of a Māori King in 1858 at Pūkawa, increasing European settler numbers and the insatiable demand for Maori land eventually resulted in the New Zealand wars of the 1860's and 1870's. The Kīngitanga (Māori King movement) and other iwi battled for over a decade with the British and colonial troops supported in some cases by Maori seeking utu.

By the turn of the century millions of acres of Māori land had been confiscated after the wars and the Māori population had dropped to just 42,000 prompting calls in Parliament to smooth the pillow of a dying race. As in Hawai'i, the predominant European expectation was for full and final assimilation of Māori into the general population through suppression of our language and culture through education and religious suppression.

The Māori leadership of the time, however, refused to accept this fate and worked tirelessly in duality of the mainstream institutions as well as with iwi. We went through a new era of strengthening our people and asserting our rights as tangata whenua. In 1867 we won political representation with the establishment of four dedicated Māori seats in Parliament.

The 19th century was a period of great change for Māori with dramatic urbanization away from our tribal homelands for most Māori. Through these times of loss we never forgot the partnership and rangatiratanga promised to us in the Treaty though. Arikinui such as King Tāwhiao and Hoani Te Heuheu led the effort to have the Treaty honored and sought justice as far away as the Privy Council in London – our struggle for federal recognition, if you will.

The post WWII era was one of increasing political, cultural and social activism for Māori. Our belief in the Treaty as the founding constitutional document of the modern nation and its guarantees to Māori eventually led to its limited recognition in law in 1975 and establishment of the Waitangi Tribunal. Through the 70s, 80s and 90s we sought justice from the Waitangi Tribunal and the courts. At the same time we sought and won redress from political negotiations with the Crown.

Fast forward to 2009, where we have a Māori Party and 7 Māori seats in Parliament based on voter enrollment and 14 more Māori representatives in the house with the mainstream parties. Māori members of Parliament total 21 or 17.4% of the house, and the Māori Party is an important partner and political power brokers within the conservative led coalition government on behalf of Māori. Customary rights issues such as Māori ownership of the foreshore and seabed have been reopened.

With the recent Central North Island forestry settlement, more than a billion dollars worth of cash and assets have been returned to Māori. Still a mere few cents on the dollar worth of redress compared with the overwhelming loss, but a solid economic base from which iwi are rebuilding their economic sovereignty. We've moved past our early missteps to now be key powerhouses in the economy with large stakes in fisheries, forestry, tourism, property and agriculture. To put it in perspective, the Māori economy is just a small fraction of billions managed by Kamehameha Schools for the well being of Kanaka Maoli.

Our challenge now is how to build on the early success of our social and cultural initiatives such as language immersion schools, wānanga or Maori Universities, health programs. How do we leverage our political and economic gains, enablers of tino rangatiratanga, to achieve the real outcome of improving the well being of our people? The structures, people and strategies to improve these issues do not lie with others though, they lie within us and effective collaboration. Initiatives such as the First Nations' Futures, a leadership development partnership between Kamehameha Schools, Māori and Stanford University, seek to equip our people to solve these problems.

Our voyaging tradition is still strong. How do we reach our people who live in the cities, or Australia, or Honolulu? We prided ourselves on inclusion, preaching that everyone with a Māori tupuna is Māori, and there is no such thing as a part-Māori. At the same time, how do we balance this with the expectation that being part of an iwi is not just a matter of blood? What makes us Māori and sustains our tūrangawaewae – knowing our whakapapa, our language, our culture, participating in iwi governance, being at the marae? What is the combination of entitlement and responsibility that we inherit and pass to our mokopuna?

In this 50th anniversary of statehood in Hawai'i, I see and hear many familiar discussions to those we have endured at home: federal recognition, self-determination, indigenous rights, restorative justice, sovereignty and so on. I hope that as a state we embrace the issues and conversations, as it's the only way to redress colonial injustice and move forward.

Our experience is that such issues do not fade with time and lasting reconciliation can only be achieved through their redress. Why is this important? Hawai'i will only progress as a society when Hawaiian rights are addressed. In large part, Aotearoa shows that what is good for indigenous peoples is good for the wider society.

As Justice Joe Williams noted recently, the tactic of his era for young Māori was anger and activism, now its business and political strategy. Nainoa Thompson challenges our your leaders to see the island in your mind – where is your destination? For that, we need to look back to the beliefs of our tūpuna: He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata, he tangata, he tangata. What is the most important thing? Our people, our people, our people.

Mawae Morton was born and raised in Aotearoa and affiliates to Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Pūkenga, Whanganui, Ngāti Maniapoto. Morton has a Masters in Public Policy and worked on Treaty of Waitangi policy and negotiations in New Zealand. He was a trustee or director for many iwi organizations and worked for KPMG Consulting. Morton is a Director of the First Nations' Futures Program, and recently left Kamehameha Schools and Hawai'i BioEnergy to become Managing Director of an international renewable energy fund. He is married to 'Aulani Wilhelm
and lives in Honolulu with their two sons.