Post by Kiwi Frontline on Mar 22, 2022 5:20:16 GMT 12
THE TREATY OF WAITANGI!
D H writes > People who think they understand the Treaty of Waitangi - and what it meant at the time - need to read this.
It has been in my head since I was a kid at school - and I just wrote it down today.
Feel free to cut and paste it anywhere you like.
WHEN THE TREATY OF WAITANGI WAS WRITTEN - it was written by people who could write. Now that might seem like an obvious and stupid thing to say - but it is important for us in the modern age - to realise - that a man sat down at a desk to write a treaty between desperately different peoples - and he clearly knew that the people who were being asked to sign it - could not read it. In fact - if we think about that - some of them would have very little knowledge of the intricacies of the English language.
In fact their understanding of the English language would be rudimentary at best.
Try to fix it in your head - that the people who the treaty was going to be made with - were unable to write - or read - and that English was at best a second language - and a thing such as a ‘Treaty” was an entirely new concept to them.
In fact - these were people who history tells us - made life and death promises to other tribes of their own people - and then broke them and slaughtered entire tribes.
Look it up in the history - before it is erased.
What we can read today on that same piece of paper - and understand - was written by people with integrity - because they clearly knew that most of the signatories could neither read nor write. It was written - in the full knowledge that these people had to take the word of the writer and author - and of the people who presented and read it to them - that it was both accurate - and said what they had been told it said - and as such was an honest document.
Such a Treaty was a completely new concept to the Maori signatories - and the idea that words and marks - written on the paper could be read back by an unknown third person - was also a new concept. We can read it now - and check it - but back then they had to accept on face value - that it was in fact saying what the person who read it to them told them it was saying - but more importantly - the words and promises incorporated on this sheet of paper - would in fact be honoured by the people who wrote it - and more especially - by the people who signed it on behalf of the other side - because remember:- the making of a Treaty - presupposes that there are two sides - with different agendas.
Just does!
What we all have to remember about that - is that a treaty written on a piece of paper - using marks that meant nothing to them - because they had no written word - because writing things down - was a concept that was totally alien to Maori - but most of them knew and understood - and trusted - that it said what they were told it said - and most
importantly - that we also have to realise today - THAT IS WAS CREATED TO PROTECT THEM - PROTECT BOTH SIDES - AND THAT INCLUDES THE MAORI SIGNITORIES - from what a a race of people who were a thousand times more advanced that they were - might be capable of.
It was an act of honesty - and integrity - on the part of the Settlers - who could easily have crafted it to disadvantage Maori - but it wasn't - IT OFFERED THEM EQUALITY IN EVERYTHING - and it offered them British citizenship - and the protection of the British crown - in particular from the French of whom they were desperately afraid. All this - even though they were very primitive by comparison with the people they signed it with.
……….. Go on - read it again - and try to tell me I’m wrong why don’t you.
D H writes > People who think they understand the Treaty of Waitangi - and what it meant at the time - need to read this.
It has been in my head since I was a kid at school - and I just wrote it down today.
Feel free to cut and paste it anywhere you like.
WHEN THE TREATY OF WAITANGI WAS WRITTEN - it was written by people who could write. Now that might seem like an obvious and stupid thing to say - but it is important for us in the modern age - to realise - that a man sat down at a desk to write a treaty between desperately different peoples - and he clearly knew that the people who were being asked to sign it - could not read it. In fact - if we think about that - some of them would have very little knowledge of the intricacies of the English language.
In fact their understanding of the English language would be rudimentary at best.
Try to fix it in your head - that the people who the treaty was going to be made with - were unable to write - or read - and that English was at best a second language - and a thing such as a ‘Treaty” was an entirely new concept to them.
In fact - these were people who history tells us - made life and death promises to other tribes of their own people - and then broke them and slaughtered entire tribes.
Look it up in the history - before it is erased.
What we can read today on that same piece of paper - and understand - was written by people with integrity - because they clearly knew that most of the signatories could neither read nor write. It was written - in the full knowledge that these people had to take the word of the writer and author - and of the people who presented and read it to them - that it was both accurate - and said what they had been told it said - and as such was an honest document.
Such a Treaty was a completely new concept to the Maori signatories - and the idea that words and marks - written on the paper could be read back by an unknown third person - was also a new concept. We can read it now - and check it - but back then they had to accept on face value - that it was in fact saying what the person who read it to them told them it was saying - but more importantly - the words and promises incorporated on this sheet of paper - would in fact be honoured by the people who wrote it - and more especially - by the people who signed it on behalf of the other side - because remember:- the making of a Treaty - presupposes that there are two sides - with different agendas.
Just does!
What we all have to remember about that - is that a treaty written on a piece of paper - using marks that meant nothing to them - because they had no written word - because writing things down - was a concept that was totally alien to Maori - but most of them knew and understood - and trusted - that it said what they were told it said - and most
importantly - that we also have to realise today - THAT IS WAS CREATED TO PROTECT THEM - PROTECT BOTH SIDES - AND THAT INCLUDES THE MAORI SIGNITORIES - from what a a race of people who were a thousand times more advanced that they were - might be capable of.
It was an act of honesty - and integrity - on the part of the Settlers - who could easily have crafted it to disadvantage Maori - but it wasn't - IT OFFERED THEM EQUALITY IN EVERYTHING - and it offered them British citizenship - and the protection of the British crown - in particular from the French of whom they were desperately afraid. All this - even though they were very primitive by comparison with the people they signed it with.
……….. Go on - read it again - and try to tell me I’m wrong why don’t you.