Action Alerts | PMA's newsletter | What's on | Links | How PMA can help you
Help PMA grow | Petition forms | Site map | PMA main page

 

Treaty Conference 2000

Proceedings

Acknowledgments

Foreword

Introducing this publication

List of Contents:

How the conference went

Publication details

Order form for Proceedings


Acknowledgments

Greetings to Ngäti Whätua as tangata whenua and all hapu mana tangata of Aotearoa.

We honour our ancestors and forbears who walked in the ways of upholding the Treaty of Waitangi. Greetings to you for your vision, your courage, your inspiration.

We honour and give thanks for this land, the mountains, the waters, the air and sky and stars. We dedicate this gathering to the living of Te Tiriti of Waitangi for future generations. May there be regeneration of the work and inspiration for new vision and direction.

Greetings to Sacred Heart College, to the land, and to those who teach, work and learn here.

Honourable greetings to the peoples of the Pasific nations connected to Aotearoa long before Te Tiriti of Waitangi.

Greetings to all people who have come to Aotearoa-New Zealand, and for whom this has become home.

Appreciation to all those who will speak and deepen the work of the conference. We give thanks for your wisdom and experience and dedication to the peoples of Aotearoa-New Zealand and to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Courage and inspiration to those who will share their knowledge, their work, their love, in their presentations. Refreshment to the women and men who have worked and met to enable this conference to take place.

Our hope: that Aotearoa be governed by honourable kawanatanga and tino rangatiratanga; that our living of our Treaty agreements give wellbeing to all people, hospitality to guests and care to our environment. May we be strengthened and enriched for our work.

In finishing, and again, we honour and greet you all.

from Treaty Conference 2000 programme


Foreword

"Nga rarangi maunga tu tonu
Nga rarangi tangata ngaro noa"

"The lines of mountains stand forever
The lines of people, come and go"

The Treaty of Waitangi has been the catalyst for gatherings of people since that original hui in the Bay of Islands. Just as Ngapuhi hosted that gathering in 1840, so too did the responsibility fall upon Ngäti Whätua this year for the Treaty 2000 Conference. So, from this we can see that although things can change, some important things have remained constant: that is, the Treaty itself and the responsibilities of the Tangata Whenua to the land they occupy, and the care for visitors to that place. These are fundamental principles of mana, and we must support these sorts of opportunities to continually raise an awareness and maintain the relevance related to the Treaty and Treaty initiatives. This will ensure that Tangata Whenua assertions over Te Reo Mäori and Tikanga Mäori within the wider context of Aotearoa happen within a framework of understanding rather than uncertainty.

Kia kaha, kia manawanui.

Te Puna (Danny) Tumahai
Ngäti Whätua o Orakei





Introducing this publication

Treaty Conference 2000 was a national conference for tauiwi (non-Mäori) communities. The aims of the conference were to affirm the future of the Treaty and to counter attempts to sideline it; to explore visions and models of relationships between tangata whenua and tauiwi; to advocate that the Treaty be endorsed as our basic constitutional document; to bring together those working to integrate the Treaty in their sectors, organisations and communities; and to consider what it will mean to belong to and live in Aotearoa beyond 2000.

The conference focused on people involved in implementing the Treaty in their communities and workplaces. All participants were invited to bring to the conference examples of Treaty work in their areas.

This publication is a collection of the presentations made at the conference. All speakers and presenters were invited to contribute their speech notes, papers or workshop formats.

The publication emerged partly in response to participants' requests for access to the full range of presentations. There were also requests that some of the numerous posters be published. Although planned as a strategising conference, the organisers were overwhelmed with the number of people around the country who wanted to tell or display the story of their efforts - work which had stretched over many years and even decades. The conference format grew to four streams of presentations, and individual participants were unable to hear all the stories they wanted to. This is our attempt to share all parts of the conference with those who attended. Publishing the range of experiences and challenges described at the conference is also a strategy in itself - one of the gaps in Pakeha/tauiwi work on the Treaty has been our lack of awareness of each other's communities and workplaces. Finally, the publication provides a snapshot of the current state of Treaty work by Pakeha and some other tauiwi in Aotearoa in 2000. A number of initiatives were launched in the mid-1980s to further Pakeha involvement in anti-racism work and in debating the Treaty. Furthermore, a number of organisations began efforts in those years to develop new processes and structures based on the Treaty of Waitangi. Some of these stories are found here, and allow the reader or researcher access to the work of some Pakeha/tauiwi communities since the mid-1980s.

We have retained the variations in capitalisation and spelling of key terms used by the contributors, since their diversity of expression illustrates how actively we are working with these terms and their place in our language and our lives in the year 2000. We trust you will find this collection of conference papers of lasting use and inspiration. We hope that it captures the warmth and generosity of the conference, the richness and variety of the experiences shared and, most of all, that it highlights what is yet to be done.


 

Speakers

Joseph Williams, Chief Judge of the Mäori Land Court: The Treaty of Waitangi and Western Democracy in Practice

Mitzi Nairn, Conference of Churches Aotearoa New Zealand (CCANZ), Programme on Racism:The Future of the Treaty of Waitangi

Margaret Stuart, Waikato Anti Racism Coalition (WARC): Directions for Pakeha/Tauiwi in Strengthening Te Tiriti in the Future

Karen Way, Network Waitangi: Directions for Pakeha Tauiwi in Strengthening the Treaty

Patricia Grace, author: The Treaty of Waitangi and the Expression of Culture in Aotearoa

Albert Wendt, author: The Treaty: A Personal Journey

Dr N. Rasalingham, Refugee Council of New Zealand: Tauiwi Communities and Their Relationships to the Treaty of Waitangi: Present and Future Perspectives

Shanti Patel, NZ Federation of Ethnic Councils Inc. - Women's Committee: A Treaty Perspective for Ethnic Women

Karun Lakshman, NZ Federation of Ethnic Councils: Tauiwi Communities and Their Relationships to the Treaty of Waitangi




Presentations and Workshops

Tangata Whenua Caucus Feedback: Recorded by Karen Way

Moea Armstrong, Whangarei Network Waitangi: Kaitiakitanga and the Crown - report by Averil Williams

Rose Black, Women's and Gender Studies, University of Waikato: Exploring Pakeha Cultural Awareness

Ann Bondy, Ally Bull and Philippa Smith, Wellington College of Education: Addressing the Treaty in Teacher Education

Brenda Campbell, National Collective of Independent Women's Refuges: Kawanatanga: A Tauiwi Perspective

Dr Love Chile, School of Community Studies, Unitec: Biculturalism and Multiculturalism: Are They Mutually Exclusive?

Tanya Cumberland and Charmaine Pountney, earthtalk@awhitu: Learning To Be Good Neighbours

Mary Foy, rsm and Dennis Horton: Nga Whaea Atawhai o Tamaki Makaurau, Sisters of Mercy Auckland as Treaty Partners

Helen Gibson and Lynda Jeffs, Faculty of Health and Science, Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology: Looking Behind the Mirror: A Strategy for Preparing Students for Treaty Education

Janinka Greenwood, Christchurch College of Education: Shaping Aotearoa: Using Drama Processes to Strategise for Treaty Implementation

Health Promotion Forum of New Zealand, TUHA-NZ: Implementing a Tiriti Strategy in Health Promotion

Christine Herzog and Jennifer Margaret, Manukau Institute of Technology: Te Tiriti in Tertiary Education Courses

Jim Holdom, CORSO, Waikato Anti Racism Coalition (WARC): A Critique of the Political Culture in Pakeha Heads

Nga Tumuaki, Literacy Aotearoa inc.: Strategies for Treaty Implementation

Cat McIsaac, Central Institute of Technology: Identifying Institutional Racism: Researching a Tertiary Institution's Commitment to the Treaty of Waitangi Charter Provisions

Madeline McNamara and Parekotuku Moore, Magdalena Aotearoa/Tii Kouka: Tino Rangatiratanga in the Performing Arts: The Story of Magdalena Aotearoa

Bernard Makoare and Adrian Birkbeck, Auckland City Libraries: He Awe Mäpara; Reshaping the Mäori Face of Auckland Libraries

Chris Oaks, Manukau City Council: An Approach to Achieving Organisational Change: Case Study of Manukau City Council and the Treaty of Waitangi

Katherine Peet, Network Waitangi: Insights from Organising Locally: Notes from "Building the Constitution" Evening 29 May 2000, Otautahi/Christchurch

Fran Richardson, College of Humanities, Massey University at Wellington: The Experience of Teaching Cultural Safety in a Nursing Education Programme: Implications for Tiriti of Waitangi Education

Anne Wells and Catriona Budge, Network Waitangi Wellington: Workshop on Values that Underlie Constitutions

Trevor Te Naihi Wilson and Megan Huffadine, Nelson/Marlborough Institute of Technology: Urupare Rangapü (Response to Partnership)

Jillian Wychel, David James, Barbara Cowan and Roni Fitzmaurice, Getting On, Moving On Network & Project Waitangi Manawatu: Working for Change: Whanganui Journeys Since Pakaitore/Moutoa Gardens




Appendices

Remits passed by conference: Letters to Prime Minister and Minister of Education;
Posters:Tamsin Hanly, A Pakeha Culture Club and a Named Pakeha Classroom: Network Waitangi Taranaki, Constitutional Change: Why All the Fuss about it Now?
Conference Evaluation
Conference Programme
Conference Committee and Photos




How the conference went

In the conference programme we described the purpose and background of the conference as follows:

"The organising committee are committed to facilitating an environment for Pakeha/tauiwi communities coming together to affirm the Treaty of Waitangi. The impetus for the conference came from a discussion between Mäori and Pakeha colleagues to more visibly ensure the life of the Treaty into the future. This eventuated in a Pakeha/tauiwi group decision to call a conference, bringing together those working to integrate the Treaty in their sectors, organisations and communities.

A key issue was whether tauiwi should work separately from tangata whenua in this effort. Much discussion and feedback contributed to our final decision that the conference was to be relational. We resolved that the venue needed to be a tauiwi space, so that Pakeha/tauiwi take responsibility for the process and hospitality, and feel free to challenge each other. These decisions were communicated to Ngäti Whätua during consultations, and they have determined their part in supporting the aims and process of the conference. We also resolved that the conference would ensure cultural safety for tangata whenua, and thus invited a tangata whenua facilitator, Irihapeti Ramsden, to guide us in this process."

A major issue was the fact that although we were focusing on all tauiwi, only Pakeha tauiwi communities were represented on the organising committee. While we held consultations with Pacific and other tauiwi community leaders, our networking was limited and low-key. The lack of involvement of non-Pakeha tauiwi communities during planning became evident in the presentations and in the audience. The individuals and groups from these communities who made time to attend and contribute to the conference were especially welcome, and we hope that links among tauiwi communities in our work on Treaty issues will grow stronger in future.

Over 260 people registered and many more attended - a much greater number than expected or originally planned for. A wealth of speakers and presentations created a challenge to our time management, and the planned strategy sessions became very short, leaving little time for meaningful or in-depth discussions. There was, however, energetic and extensive networking outside formal sessions, and for many these connections have already flourished upon returning home.

As the organising committee, we feel that much can be learned from this gathering regarding both process and content. We look back with considerable satisfaction that so many people came who are committed to affirming the Treaty as a basis for the future of Aotearoa. We are overwhelmed that so many took the opportunity to share their experiences and visions. We regret that the opportunity to dialogue with each other was cut short, and we sincerely hope that this lack sparks more gatherings, local and national, which will allow further exploration and strategising by tauiwi communities in this country towards a Treaty-based future.

We are grateful to Ngati Whätua and other tängata whenua for their generous gifts of time and other - often challenging - input. We wish to thank all those who together made this conference happen: tängata whenua, all other speakers, presenters and facilitators, those who brought their banners and displayed their posters and resources, the cooks and servers, all the volunteers and all the participants. Finally, we thank Sacred Heart College for sharing their facilities, with the use of their new auditorium being especially welcome.



Publication details

Published by the Treaty Conference 2000 Publication Group, November 2000.

Treaty Conference 2000 Publications Group
Private Bag 47 904 Ponsonby
Tamaki Makaurau/Auckland
NEW ZEALAND


ISBN 0-473-07233-5

© Arrangements for copyright of specific papers should be made with individual contributors and organisations. Copyright for this work as a whole is held by the Treaty Conference Publication Group. Provided that correct acknowledgment is made to the source, use of this material for not-for-profit purposes is encouraged.

Copies of the printed document are available at a cost of $NZ40, please use the order form

The conference collective was drawn from the following groups: Auckland Catholic Justice and Peace Office; Network Waitangi Inc.; Pax Christi Aotearoa-New Zealand; Programme on Racism; Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).

The conference and publication were supported by: Auckland Workers Education Association; Projecta Foundation; Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand; Cathy Pelly Maungarongo Trust.

Editorial committee: Ingrid Huygens, Marisa Maclachlan, Helen Yensen, Katja Huijbers, Pat Reid
Layout by Valerie Ussher, V J Ussher Design
Photos by Rose Black, Valerie Ussher & Al
Back cover & T-shirt design by Lisa Williams, Fineline Studios lisa.williams@zfree.co.nz Printing by Super Print, Auckland




Order form for the Treaty Conference 2000 Proceedings

Information about Treaty Conference 2000