Post by Kiwi Frontline on Feb 13, 2016 17:55:26 GMT 12
Letter to the Editor
Kapiti News 03.02.16
Waitangi Errors
I read with astonishment the glaring inaccuracies in this paper’s January 27 story entitled “Whakarongatai Waitangi Event”.
Clearly both the Kapiti News and Mayor Ross Church are in need of some education about New Zealand and Waitangi Day.
Waitangi Day is supposed to be a celebration of the day that the British began collecting the signatures of various leaders in New Zealand, written as Nu Tirani in the treaty, who wished to cede whatever sovereignty they had, some or none, to the Queen of England.
The treaty effectively joined some 600 or so separate and warring groups into one nation. This was punctuated by William Hobson at the conclusion of each signing on February 6th 1840, when he said he Iwi tahi tatou” or “we are now one people”.
The country that this occurred in was known as New Zealand not Aotearoa. New Zealand has never been known as Aotearoa, however twice in your article you quote people calling our country Aotearoa, once by Mayor Ross Church who should know better.
In 1840 the people of New Zealand were known as exactly that, the people of New Zealand or as written in the treaty “ki nga tangata katoa o Nu Tirani”.
According to the highest authority of the Maori language Herbert Williams’s, A Dictionary of the Maori Language, the word “Maori” was not used to describe a collective group of people until about 1850, a decade after the treaty. Indeed in every copy of the treaty in the native language that was circulated for signing the word “maori” has a small ‘m’. This is because according to the dictionary it was an adjective meaning “normal” or “ordinary”.
So the treaty is an agreement between the Crown and all the people of New Zealand, not just Maori people.
Reading the treaty confirms this “ki nga tangata katoa o Nu Tirani” or “all the people of New Zealand”.
Why then for the last 14 years does our Council agree to host celebrations that begin with a religious Powhiri in partnership with Te Atiawa, who are a collection of people have only one thing in common; they are New Zealanders who identify as Maori.
Year on year we celebrate kapa haka, poi making and ta moko which is fine except that nowhere in this partnership do we celebrate what the British bought to Nu Tirani.
Maori and Pakeha do not have a shared history. History is not divided it is just history; New Zealand history and it does not belong to anyone except New Zealanders.
Andy Oakley
Kapiti News 03.02.16
Waitangi Errors
I read with astonishment the glaring inaccuracies in this paper’s January 27 story entitled “Whakarongatai Waitangi Event”.
Clearly both the Kapiti News and Mayor Ross Church are in need of some education about New Zealand and Waitangi Day.
Waitangi Day is supposed to be a celebration of the day that the British began collecting the signatures of various leaders in New Zealand, written as Nu Tirani in the treaty, who wished to cede whatever sovereignty they had, some or none, to the Queen of England.
The treaty effectively joined some 600 or so separate and warring groups into one nation. This was punctuated by William Hobson at the conclusion of each signing on February 6th 1840, when he said he Iwi tahi tatou” or “we are now one people”.
The country that this occurred in was known as New Zealand not Aotearoa. New Zealand has never been known as Aotearoa, however twice in your article you quote people calling our country Aotearoa, once by Mayor Ross Church who should know better.
In 1840 the people of New Zealand were known as exactly that, the people of New Zealand or as written in the treaty “ki nga tangata katoa o Nu Tirani”.
According to the highest authority of the Maori language Herbert Williams’s, A Dictionary of the Maori Language, the word “Maori” was not used to describe a collective group of people until about 1850, a decade after the treaty. Indeed in every copy of the treaty in the native language that was circulated for signing the word “maori” has a small ‘m’. This is because according to the dictionary it was an adjective meaning “normal” or “ordinary”.
So the treaty is an agreement between the Crown and all the people of New Zealand, not just Maori people.
Reading the treaty confirms this “ki nga tangata katoa o Nu Tirani” or “all the people of New Zealand”.
Why then for the last 14 years does our Council agree to host celebrations that begin with a religious Powhiri in partnership with Te Atiawa, who are a collection of people have only one thing in common; they are New Zealanders who identify as Maori.
Year on year we celebrate kapa haka, poi making and ta moko which is fine except that nowhere in this partnership do we celebrate what the British bought to Nu Tirani.
Maori and Pakeha do not have a shared history. History is not divided it is just history; New Zealand history and it does not belong to anyone except New Zealanders.
Andy Oakley