Tongan advocates condemn Treaty Principles Bill

Tongan community leaders and artists in New Zealand have criticised the Treaty Principles Bill while highlighting the ongoing impact of colonisation in Aotearoa and the Pacific.

Oral submissions continued this week for the public to voice their view on the proposed bill, which aims to redefine the legal framework of the nation’s founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi.

Aotearoa Tongan Response Group member Pakilau Manase Lua echoed words from the Waitangi Day commemorations earlier this month.

“The Treaty of Waitangi Principles Bill and its champions and enablers represent the spirit of the coloniser.”

He says New Zealand’s history includes forcible takeovers of Sāmoa, Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau.

“The New Zealand Government, or the Crown, has shown time and again that it has a pattern of trampling on the mana and sovereignty of indigenous peoples, not just here in Aotearoa, but also in the Pacific region.”

Poet Karlo Mila spoke as part of a submission by a collective of artists, Mana Moana,

“Have you ever paused to wonder why we speak English here, half a world away from England? It's a global history of Christian white supremacy, who, with apostolic authority, ordained the doctrine of discovery to create a new world order.

“Yes, this is where the ‘new’ in New Zealand comes from, invasion for advantage and profit, presenting itself as progress, as civilising, as salvation, as enlightenment itself - the greatest gaslighting feat of history.”

She argues that the bill is being used as a political weapon, and government rhetoric is causing division.

“We watch political parties sow seeds of disunity using disingenuous history, harnessing hate speech and the haka of destiny, scapegoating ‘vulnerable enemies’...Yes, for us, it's a forest fire out there, and brown bodies are moving political targets, every inflammatory word finding kindling in kindred racists.”

Pakilau says because Tonga has never been formally colonised, they have a unique view of the unfolding situation.

“We know what sovereignty tastes like, we know what it smells like and feels like, especially when it's trampled on.

“Ask the American Samoans, who provide more soldiers per capita than any state of America to join the US Army, but are not allowed to vote for the country they are prepared to die for.

“Ask the mighty 28th Maori Battalion, who field Marshal Erwin Rommel famously said, ‘Give me the Māori Battalion and I will rule the world’, they bled and died for a country that denied them the very rights promised under the Treaty.

“The Treaty of Waitangi Bill is essentially threatening to do the same thing again, it is re-traumatising Māori and opening old wounds.”

A vision for the future

Mila, who also has European and Sāmoan ancestry, says the answer to how to proceed is in the Treaty’s Indigenous text.

“The answer is Te Tiriti, not separatist exclusion. It's the fair terms of inclusion, an ancestral strategy for harmony, a covenant of cooperation. It's how we live ethically on a land that was never ceded.”

Flags displayed at Waitangi treaty grounds 2024. Photo/PMN News/Atutahi Potaka-Dewes

Aotearoa Tongan Response Group chair Anahila Kanongata’a says Tongans are Tangata Tiriti (people of the Treaty), and the bill denigrates the rights of Māori as Tangata Whenua (people of the land).

“How many times has the Crown breached the Treaty? Too, too many times.

“What this bill is attempting to do is retrospectively annul those breaches by extinguishing Māori sovereignty or tino rangatiritanga over their own affairs, as promised to them in their Tiriti, the Te Reo Māori text.”

Kanongata’a calls on the Crown to rescind the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill, honour Te Riti, and issue a formal apology to Māori, similar to what was done for the Dawn Raids.

Hundreds gather at Treaty Grounds for the annual Waitangi Day dawn service. Photo/PMN Digital/Joseph Safiti

“As a former member of Parliament, I am proud of the fact that an apology was made for the way our people were treated during the Dawn Raids.

“We were directly affected, yes, it was painful and most of our loved ones never got to see or hear the apology, but imagine the pain Māori must feel to be essentially dispossessed, disempowered and effectively disowned of their sovereignty on their own lands."

The bill's architect, Act party leader David Seymour, says the nationwide discussion on Treaty principles was crucial for future generations.

“In a democracy, the citizens are always ready to decide the future. That's how it works.”