Ratana and The Treaty of Waitangi

Written By: - Date published: 5:25 pm, February 6th, 2024 - 10 comments
Categories: Culture wars, david seymour, history, labour, Maori Issues, Maori seats, Parliament - Tags:

“My understanding is a guy came out as a prophet of his own religious movement in the 1870s. And politicians feel a strange obligation to be there every year. I’ve never felt that.” David Seymour is shallow as a birdbath.

With the Bible in one hand and the Treaty in the other TW Ratana preached unity through the avoidance of tribal dispute, and aimed to advance the economic standing of Maori people as a whole. David Seymour doesn’t feel it, doesn’t get it, doesn’t understand a thing about it.

When I was Labour Party Secretary, I wrote a paper on the Ratana/Labour Alliance. Before distributing it in the Party, I took it to the Church Committee for their approval, and the then Secretary was kind enough to tell me that it taught them things that they didn’t know. Much of the following is taken from that paper.

Tahupotiki Wiremu Ratana was born in 1873, but his vision that led to the formation of the Ratana Church happened in 1919. He originally gained fame among Maori as a prophet and healer, with his teaching based on the Bible. Ratana followers were known as morehu, the Hebrew name in the Book of Exodus for the wandering Israelites before entry to the promised land. The independent Ratana Church was formally recognised in 1925.

Besides the spiritual ministry through the Ratana Church, TW Ratana’s work as a healer always extended beyond the spiritual to a concern for the material needs of the Maori people.

The land wars in the 19th century and subsequent confiscations, and the influenza epidemic of 1918 had ravaged the Maori population. Maori were not treated as equal citizens with pakeha. After World War 1, Maori volunteers with the Pioneer battalion were not entitled to rehabilitation allowances on the same terms as Europeans. They did not have the same entitlement to unemployment benefits in the depression.

While there had been four seats reserved for Maori in Parliament since 1868, there was no Maori roll. Maori voted by turning up for a face-to-face meeting with the returning officer, declaring their name and tribal affiliation, and stating whom they wished to vote for.

Grievances regarding land purchase and confiscation, as well as the activities of the Maori Land court, were strongly felt and unaddressed.

Besides his spiritual mission, Te Ture Wairua, TW Ratana also sought improvement for Maori through law change, Te Ture Tangata. His approach to the latter was to seek recognition of Maori as equal to pakeha, and support for their advancement and self-development through recognition of the Treaty of Waitangi in law. The Bible provided the spiritual base, and legal recognition of the Treaty would gain redress for resources taken and respect for the status and culture of Maori.

The morehu were asked to sign a covenant with him, which pledge became the linchpin of the Ratana movement across tribal and regional boundaries.

At the celebration at the dedication of the church at Ratana in January 1928, TW Ratana announced his change from prophet to campaigner. From this time and in this role he was known as Piriwiritua. He asked the Morehu to select four candidates for the Maori seats for the 1928 elections, in order to win all the Maori seats and so unify Maori. The chosen candidates were Haami Tokouru Ratana, the prophet’s eldest son, for Western Maori; Pita Moko for Eastern; Paraire Paikea for Northern and Eruera Tirikatene for Southern Maori.

They were known as the “koata” or quarters, and “in a formal ceremony were asked to solemnise the decision to stand as the Mangai’s representatives by signing a kawenata or covenant (which) contained four pledges:

  1. That the 4 quarters would totally dedicate themselves to their mission to take their place in parliament
  2. That they would accept no bribes, or payment for their work, and that they would not be motivated by any thought of personal gain.
  3. That the wives would fully support the husbands in their mission, and that they would be as equally dedicated as their husbands
  4. 4. That they would work ‘mo te iwi maori’ for the whole of the Maori race without concern for tribe or other affiliations.”

Between 1928 and 1931 the Ratana candidates and the movement invited many other parties and politicians to Ratana pa for political discussions. The Ratana candidates were again unsuccessful in the 1931 election, but when the Southern Maori MP Tuiti Te Makitanara died in 1932 Tirikatene won the subsequent by-election. He was the first Ratana Independent MP. His maiden speech started by saying: ”My policy is to stand for the rights and privileges of the whole Maori race, as embodied in the Treaty of Waitangi. However I do not intend to elaborate on that at this time, but will do so in the fullness of time. There are certain other matters with which I want to deal.”1

He then went on to raise the fact that Maori were treated differently from pakeha in relation to unemployment benefits. He also attacked the reduction of pensions proposed by the Reform government, the lack of attention to petitions, the way in which Maori land was being alienated by the non-payment of rates, the separate treatment of Maori voters under the Electoral Act, and the removal of discrimination in Maori education.

He took a petition to Parliament in 1932 asking that “the Treaty of Waitangi be embodied in the Statue Book of the Dominion of New Zealand,…in order that all may know that the Treaty of Waitangi is operative, also to preserve the ties of brotherhood between Pakeha and Maori for all time.”

TW Ratana’s vision was the unity of all peoples in New Zealand to achieve greater benefit for all, and is reflected on the canoes on the Manuao building at Ratana paa, that include the Heemskerk and the Endeavour alongside Takitimu, Tokomaru, Tainui and the others of the great migration.

The intent of my paper was to provide information for twentieth-century Labour Party members on the richness of the links between Ratana and Labour, as well as the importance of the Treaty of Waitangi in that relationship. While it was unashamedly an apologia, it also noted Labour was slow to acknowledge the importance and the significance of the Treaty in its later relationship with Ratana, laid out in Sir Ngatata Love’s excellent PHD thesis and evidenced by the resignation of Matt Rata in 1979 to form the Mana Motuhake Party. Current Labour MP Adrian Rurawhe is a direct descendant of TW Ratana.

However it was good to hear Matua Shane Jones, whose entry into New Zealand politics was facilitated by the Labour Party, acknowledge the significance of Sir Geoffrey Palmer’s initiative in introducing the Treaty of Waitangi Amendment Act in 1985, which enabled Maori to seek redress for grievance back to 1840, and which unlocked the putea which enabled so much later Maori investment.

We have come a long way together towards real kotahitanga in Aotearoa/New Zealand in my lifetime, even if not without trial and error on the way. That is why it is so disappointing to see Seymour’s ignorance, as he tries to contribute to more tribulation.

10 comments on “Ratana and The Treaty of Waitangi ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. adam 1
    6 February 2024 at 6:15 pm

    Funny how Tory scum lies so easily in this country.

    Funny how Tory scum can't honour a contract.

    Funny how Tory scum, embody the absolute worse of our culture.

  2. weka 2
    6 February 2024 at 6:49 pm

    that was a great read, thanks Mike. So much history so many of us don't know.

  3. Binders full of women 3
    6 February 2024 at 8:08 pm

    Is that the same Ngatata Love who went to jail for 2.5 years?

    • adam 3.1
      7 February 2024 at 1:04 am

      Whale oil type shitfuckery,

      can you go any lower?

      Oh look attack the man for the actions later in life, to discredit and work done early in life.

      Ever heard of the concept of letting art stand?

      Snow flake tory scum, its the new play book.

    • Mike Smith 3.2
      7 February 2024 at 3:23 pm

      @ Binders
      It was a very good thesis. I would encourage you to read it. It is in the Victoria University Library.

  4. UncookedSelachimorpha 4
    7 February 2024 at 1:05 am

    Thanks Mike, very interesting read.

    Supporting Maori is a great way to encourage the country to be more concerned about people and community generally, instead of the current neoliberal idea about society.

  5. SPC 5
    7 February 2024 at 6:09 am

    However it was good to hear Matua Shane Jones, whose entry into New Zealand politics was facilitated by the Labour Party, acknowledge the significance of Sir Geoffrey Palmer’s initiative in introducing the Treaty of Waitangi Amendment Act in 1985, which enabled Maori to seek redress for grievance back to 1840, and which unlocked the putea which enabled so much later Maori investment.

    The NZF policy of a review of the Waitangi Tribunal and the Treaty in legislation is in the coalition agreement.

    Among the clauses in New Zealand First’s coalition agreement with National is a commitment to: “Amend the Waitangi Tribunal legislation to refocus the scope, purpose, and nature of its inquiries back to the original intent of that legislation”

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/waitangi-tribunal-review-changing-role-set-to-come-under-scrutiny-by-new-government/GJ3OXYYUOZGFLGXRBLQYFY4NUM/

  6. Mac 6
    7 February 2024 at 3:31 pm

    Ratana, like so many others, was well intentioned but misinformed regarding the status and intent of the treaty.

    The real status and intent is something we all as New Zealanders need to be better educated about.

    For perspective, the English parliament of the time was shocked to see King William the 4th recognise the 1835 NZ declaration of independence (He Wakaputanga) as this was giving away an entire nation they had hoped to colonise eventually. William was not popular with parliament having already in his short reign signed the abolition of slavery throughout the empire. This was costing many members of parliament vast amounts of money.

    Then suddenly William died . . .

    Seizing the opportunity parliament inserted a young German girl who had been only 5th in line for the throne. With Victoria in place parliament controlled the empire entirely.

    One of their first acts was to send Hobson out to NZ under the care and tutelage of my own great X3 grandfather. Together they were to wrest NZ back for England and oversee colonisation. Notably my great X3 grandfather was also on assignment from the royal Scottish rite of freemasonry. As a result of his work NZ has not had a governor, nor prime minister who was not a Grandmaster. Ardern was in the women's lodge and Luxon is in the men's. From that perspective grandad did a very fine job.

    However, he and Hobson failed in one major way.

    This is best summarised in the words of the then head of crown law and attorney general in 2014 who wrote:

    The treaty was a failed attempt to take sovereignty away from NZ and therefore the inescapable conclusion in law is that the legal document of precedence in NZ is he Wakaputanga, the 1835 declaration of independence, and nothing since then has changed anything about that.

    When the English parliament realised they had been outwitted they didn't even bother to ratify the treaty which means it is nothing at all.

    After regrouping the English parliament decided to carry out fraud against NZ and use propaganda and miseducation to trick the nation into believing that the treaty was legal, and only the English version at that. This was despite knowing that under international law local language takes precedence in treaty and contract, and that by inserting the line tino rangitiratanga, Henry Williams and the chiefs had retained the sovereignty declared in 1835.

    People like Ratana and many others who are quoted in relation to the treaty are victims of this miseducation.

    The good news however is that the declaration created a federation of and for all the people who settle in NZ and make it their home.

    It created the united states of NZ, but used the local language version of the word states, "tribes". It went on to describe those tribes as comprising all those who settle here. They recognised that NZ is a place of ongoing migration so they created a federation that welcomed settlers of good intent.

    This makes NZ truly unique. It also gives us the opportunity to truly be what our anthem declares – "Freedoms ramparts on the sea!"

    • SPC 6.1
      7 February 2024 at 3:51 pm

      For perspective, the English parliament of the time was shocked to see King William the 4th recognise the 1835 NZ declaration of independence (He Wakaputanga) as this was giving away an entire nation they had hoped to colonise eventually. William was not popular with parliament having already in his short reign signed the abolition of slavery throughout the empire. This was costing many members of parliament vast amounts of money.

      Then suddenly William died . . .

      Seizing the opportunity parliament inserted a young German girl who had been only 5th in line for the throne. With Victoria in place parliament controlled the empire entirely

      Sorry to bust that part of the conspiracy bubble but Victoria was, on the succession of William IV to the throne, the presumptive heir

      The Regency Act 1830 made special provision for Victoria's mother to act as regent in case William died while Victoria was still a minor. King William distrusted the Duchess's capacity to be regent, and in 1836 he declared in her presence that he wanted to live until Victoria's 18th birthday, so that a regency could be avoided

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Victoria

    • SPC 6.2
      7 February 2024 at 4:06 pm

      One of their first acts was to send Hobson out to NZ under the care and tutelage of my own great X3 grandfather. Together they were to wrest NZ back for England and oversee colonisation. Notably my great X3 grandfather was also on assignment from the royal Scottish rite of freemasonry. As a result of his work NZ has not had a governor, nor prime minister who was not a Grandmaster. Ardern was in the women's lodge and Luxon is in the men's. From that perspective grandad did a very fine job.

      Conspiracy theory bubble burst number 2

      Once it was most GG's and some PM's, the former is at risk as time goes by.

      Ardern received a university scholarship from a Freemasonry charity and has awarded the same to others since – and that is about it.

      And someone put up Luxon The Freemason on TikTok.