Taking on the Treaty Principles Bill
Te Tiriti o Waitangi is about all of us. It sets the foundations for ongoing peace and mutual benefit in Aotearoa. It offers everyone a chance to belong, to work together and to share decision-making so that we can look after our people and planet. It’s an inclusive vision that can take us forward into the future together.
And yet, this year we have seen the most divisive, and destructive attacks on our Te Tiriti o Waitangi relationship in modern history.
Once elected, the Coalition Government was quick to roll out a raft of anti-Te Tiriti policies, including axing the Te Aka Whaiora / the Māori Health Authority, reducing the use of Te Reo in public services, reversing legislation on Māori ward seats on councils, removing Section 7AA from the Children's and Young People's Wellbeing Act, and more.
The ActionStation team decided to focus on the Treaty Principles Bill (officially called the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill) because we had watched the results of the Voice referendum in Australia, and realised the ACT Party wanted to replicate a similar strategy here. As with Māori wards, referendums have been weaponised against indigenous people, who have often been reduced to a minority group on their own lands. We knew that well-resourced, far right actors would use this Bill as an opportunity to influence the wider public to eventually vote against honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
As predicted, David Seymour launched his campaign to rewrite the Treaty Principles using misinformation and unethical translations of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Under the guise of ‘equality’, Seymour proposed removing the guarantee of tino rangatiratanga which the British Monarch, and over 500 rangatira agreed to in 1840. The result: three new principles based on the ACT policy of protecting property rights instead of honouring the founding document of our country.
Our team quickly got to work, ensuring that the public had accurate information about the Principles so they could make an informed decision of their own. Working with renowned Te Tiriti experts, we created posters and resources that people could share in their communities.
In the spirit of kotahitanga, we brought together Māori working on this Bill, so that we could share information and coordinate our strategies.
We supported a number of groups who wrote open letters opposing the Bill, from our country’s most prominent Te Reo translators, to over 230 civil society organisations, to over 400 church leaders. This meant that the Bill had widespread opposition before it was even introduced.
We launched Together for Te Tiriti, a visual campaign that we hoped would invite our Tangata Tiriti (non-Māori) friends and whānau to show their support for a Tiriti-based future. With the expertise from Extended Whānau, we designed a tohu (symbol) that embodied kotahitanga: a hongi where different people share breath, and choose to live together in harmony. We never expected the tohu to be embraced by so many people.
In just three months, over 5000 orders were made for placards, posters and stickers (with support from printers, Big Picture). You don’t have to look too far to see Together for Te Tiriti in your local neighbourhood, on a car bumper or at a local rally. Our favourites are the countless hand-made renditions on clothing, jewellery and more! Many Tangata Tiriti have told us that the tohu gave them the opportunity to join the kotahitanga sweeping the country, and even the media has picked up on the trend!
One of the challenges of this Bill is that it’s complex, and most people in Aotearoa haven’t had the opportunity to learn about Te Tiriti o Waitangi, or the Treaty Principles. This makes it easier to accept misinformation or political spin to fill in the gaps. So we worked with esteemed Te Tiriti educators Moea Armstrong (Network Waitangi) and Jen Margaret (GroundWork) to provide good information through Te Tiriti workshops. We also shared conversation guides here and here to help people talk about the Bill, and ran webinars such as this one.
Behind the scenes, we worked with Toitū Te Tiriti and mana whenua in Te Upoko o Te Ika to support the Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti. Under the local tikanga of Te Kahu o Te Raukura, we helped establish Tiriti Action Group - Pōneke, who coordinated nearly 500 volunteers to help host the hīkoi as it reached Parliament. The fact that over 100,000 people gathered in the capital, and only one (counterprotester) was arrested is a testament to the leadership of local iwi who guided us according to their peaceful teachings from Parihaka. The entire hīkoi was magical. A close friend said that it was like stepping into the future - where Te Tiriti is not only honoured, but embraced and celebrated by all.
At the end of the hīkoi, we had the honour of co-delivering the petition opposing the Treaty Principles Bill. A group of rangatahi from Ngāti Whakaue, called Whiria, led the petition and travelled from Rotorua to hand it over to Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke. The petition has now been signed by over 290,000 people making it the second biggest petition ever in our country’s history, and the biggest ever hosted on OurActionStation. With a touch of celebrity, even Jason Momoa got behind it!
But the action didn’t stop after the hīkoi. Our team was ready to go with a cross-movement submissions strategy as soon as the Select Committee opened. Our team members Joe and Grace designed a custom-built tool to guide people through making their own unique submissions. We encouraged everyone to run their own submission parties, with an event guide and live events hub so people can easily find a local or online gathering. At the time of writing, over 100 submission parties had been organised, that we were aware of. People from all backgrounds have been hosting educational events where people can submit together: young people, teachers, disabled people, artists, religious groups, Pacific, Asian and African communities!
After a year of people uniting in kotahitanga to honour Te Tiriti, the public mood on the Treaty Principles Bill has shifted. The media has honed in on this Bill, focusing not just on David Seymour but Christopher Luxon for his poor leadership in allowing ACT’s agenda to divide the country. Unlikely allies have come out against the Bill, including former National Treaty Negotiations Minister, Chris Finlayson and former Prime Minister, Dame Jenny Shipley. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find many people who publicly support the Bill in the traditional media. A recent poll showed that there are more people who oppose than support the Bill, and a high number who still don’t know enough about it. It’s a positive sign that people across the country are being discerning, rather than accepting misinformation and political manipulation.
Of course, it’s not over yet. Submissions are open until January 7th (write yours here!) and we won’t know the results until mid-2025. Despite National and NZ First refusing to take the Bill past second reading, they are continuing their anti-Te Tiriti policies out of the spotlight, such as removing references to Te Tiriti in 28 pieces of legislation.
The next two years will require all of us to keep up the kotahitanga, and put pressure on this government to stop their anti-Te Tiriti attacks across the board. Right now we are shaping the path of our country, one step, one signature, one submission at a time. Kia ū te kaupapa, let us stay the course to a Te Tiriti-based future we can all thrive, together.
