(This is the first of a two part series by John Bluck, author of Becoming Pakeha: a journey between two cultures, published by Harpercollins and available in bookstores now.)

 

Predator free by 2040? OK. Carbon emissions zero? Yeh well. Smoke free? Of course. Child poverty free? A work in progress. But how close are we to making the 200^th anniversary of signing Te Tiriti o Waitangi a celebration rather than a commemoration?

He Puapua was the think tank report that tried to set out some goals we need to reach by 2040. And even though it grew out of a response to New Zealand signing up to the UN resolution on the rights of indigenous people under a National Government, then cautiously explored by a Labour government, it’s become the whipping boy for anyone anxious about finding a bicultural future for Aotearoa.

The report offered some ideas about co-governance which is a principle that has been around for a long time, it’s a Cabinet guideline for policy making, already embedded in the rules of dozens of institutions (including several of our church denominations) , schools, universities, museums, national parks, rivers and waterways. It’s one principle for sharing power in particular settings and locations, remembering that Maori are not all the same everywhere any more than Pakeha are. Aucklanders where I live think Cantabrians are creatures from another planet.

Co-governance is not the same as co-government as Chris Finlayson reminds us. It doesn’t give Maori greater rights, but under the Treaty there are different rights.

And since the Treaty was signed and then dishonoured over and over, there are different ways to set things right in response to different histories. Each region has a different back story. Take the current furore over the Uruwera National Park which has been under a co-governance covenant between DOC and Tuhoe since 2014. Tuhoe inherited a backlog of maintenance and upgrades and said it wouldn’t pay for that backlog. Why is Tuhoe anxious about the deal now ? Well back in 1896 the Seddon government at the time granted Tuhoe autonomy to prevent mining claims in the Uruwera. That control was repealed in 1923 without any consultation. Wouldn’t you be nervous?

Cogovernance is a Treaty principle that will shape our future, but it has to be worked through place by place, issue by issue, by partners talking to each other. When that happens everyone benefits.

The Anglican Church’s experience of co-governance at the level of its General Synod is that decisions are made by consensus, negotiation, conversation rather than Westminster style votes and divisions that used to define our life and leave us divided and disgruntled.

So what might a bicultural future for Aotearoa look like by 2040? Along with He Puapua and the slew of government reports and political party manifestos doing all the imagining, wouldn’t it be good if the churches joined this conversation. Pointing people toward a future that is hopeful and just is our core business after all. But we’ve been strangely silent since 1990, preoccupied and distracted by our internal woes.

Whatever we might have to say now would look different from what we said in 1990 at the sesquecenntenial. Back then the churches talked about constitutional reform of Parliament which has since become a deeply unpopular topic. Archbishop Sir Paul Reeves convened a national convention on the subject ten years later and concluded that the best outcome was probably that they managed to offend and upset an equal number of people for and against.

Back then the churches talked about the urgency of environmental stewardship run by Maori and Pakeha principles and understandings of creation working in harmony. That was far sighted at the time.

And the churches praised the work of the Waitangi Tribunal and pledged their support.

In 2023 I think we could do even better and be much more specific about honouring the Treaty, 33 years on and midway on the journey to 2040, we can add a lot more detail to the model of a bicultural future.

(This is the second part of a two part series by John Bluck, author of Becoming Pakeha: a journey between two cultures, published by Harpercollins and available in bookstores now.)

What might a bicultural nation worth celebrating look like by 2040, the 200^th anniversary of Te Tiriti o Waitangi?

The much feared and demonised issue of co-governance will be front and centre stage by then, no longer a ping pong ball for our political parties to bat around. The churches have a story to tell about that, firstly to each other, for our different denominations have tried some brave models with great success and a few failures. We need some honest talking amongst ourselves before trying to sell anything to the nation, which we tried unsuccessfully to do in the 1990’s.

Anglicans for example, wrote Maori back into their constitution (it took us 133 years) but we lost the focus on building a common ground, to be promoted through Common Life Hui.

Because working toward a common ground is the goal that is constantly forgotten in the bicultural planning and dreaming. For all out talk of partnership there are far too few occasions, public celebrations, shared forums where Maori and Pakeha stand alongside each other to talk and sing, speak and listen, to pray together. The sports fields do a better job than our sanctuaries, celebrating a country where both Treaty partners enjoy not only equality but equity, not only proud identity as Maori and Pakeha, but the common humanity we share as children of God.

But to get there by 2040 there is much to be done by both partners, Pakeha especially, and urgently.

Because the opportunity to get it right doesn’t last for ever. The promises that we’ve broken and apologised for and then broken again aren’t always elastic. You can stretch them to breaking point. The symbols of justice and reconciliation have a shelf life that depends on how well they’ve been honoured.

As the debacle in our High Commission in London in front of King Tuheitia reminds us. As the continuing Dawn Raids on Pasifica families reminds us. And the fudging and ducking and diving around co-governance reminds us.

The coronation of King Charles is a case study in the shelf life of symbols. However beautifully they’re displayed, people tire of them if they don’t stand for what is good and honourable and true.

The work we have to do is transformational work no less. The fashionable word for that is decolonisation, for both Maori and Pakeha have been colonised by this imperial history we share, one rather more harshly than the other.

Maori scholar and lawyer Moana Jackson wasn’t too sure about the word. He preferred to talk about an ethic of restoration whereby each partner works at finding the truth about their part of the story.

In the book I quote Supreme Court Justice Joe Williams saying, “Both sides have to decolonise their minds because both sides are colonised, both saying now “ We want to do it a different way”. It’s no longer right to say ‘Evil, nasty Crown, good angel iwi’ ”

We’re not going to get to 2040 by relying on laws and resolutions and more reports. It’s also going to need new songs and movies and art works and poems and yes sports and teams and occasions like the Black Ferns victory and Eden Park going crazy with poi swinging and waiata. We’ll have to learn to sing and dance our way to 2040 with karaoke and kapa haka. Check out the winners at the NZ Music Awards and the Ockham Book Awards, both the adult and the children’s sections.

And to trust the language of symbols and images, melody and shape and form. Symbols especially. When Tahupotiki Wiremu Ratana met Prime Minister Peter Fraser in 1935 and reshaped bicultural politics in this country he did it with symbols not words. A broken watch to speak of poverty, a huia feather to speak of dispossession, a pounamu pendant to speak of rangatiratanga.

Evidence abounds that we are finding things that bind us together beyond words and to dream together about the future we share. And to agree on the values that will shape it.

And it’s not rocket science. The values that shape decolonisation or restoration are what we both want. About community, and the importance of place and care of the land and sea. The value of belonging, of balance sand dignity and tikanga, the way things ought to be for our culture.

Values that come to us on a wing and a song and a prayer. Values that we find when we reclaim our history for better or worse, repenting of the mistakes we made, and celebrating our successes in establishing partnerships and above all friendships.

John Bluck