Main image Photo: RNZ
"It was never ceded, legally or legitimately" - Indigenous rights and constitutional law expert Claire Charters
He tai e! He tai e! He tai e tangi ana i waho o Rehua. He tai mate! Aue! E te Kingi! Te aroha nui o ō iwi, o tō waka, o te iwi Māori e māpuna ake nei i taku ngākau pōuri! Aue te mamae i te iwi e!
Tributes are flowing from across Aotearoa and around the world after Kiingi Tuuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII died early on Friday morning.
It ends a fortnight in which the question of whether Māori ceded sovereignty - a question as old as the Treaty itself - saw the major parties in Parliament taking stronger positions in the debate than ever before.
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Prime Minister Christopher Luxon last week stated in the Debating Chamber that Māori had ceded sovereignty, and "the Crown is sovereign". ACT and NZ First see the debate as a distraction, arguing what's important is moving forward. NZ First's Winston Peters constantly refers to the views of Sir Apirana Ngata as laid out in a 1922 thesis.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins takes the opposing view, saying while Parliament is sovereign, that's because it was taken. It's a position the Greens and Te Pāti Māori have long held but neither he nor his predecessor Jacinda Ardern ever put on the record while in power.
Read more:
- Sovereignty debate split on party lines
- 'Māori ceded sovereignty to the Crown' - PM Christopher Luxon
- Iwi write to PM demanding recognition Māori did not cede sovereignty
- Waitangi Tribunal calls for Treaty Principles Bill to be abandoned
- ACT interpretation of Treaty inaccurate and misleading - claimants
In 2014, a Waitangi Tribunal report found Māori did not cede sovereignty. The northern iwi who presented evidence for that report - Ngāti Hine and Ngāti Manu - have penned an open letter to Luxon warning his comments are misleading and they're deeply frustrated by his disregard for the truth.
Professor Claire Charters from the University of Auckland and head lecturer Carwyn Jones from Te Wānanga o Raukawa point to the different translations of the Treaty of Waitangi as cause for confusion.
Charters says the te reo Māori version will always take precedence in the law. Jones explains the English text speaks about sovereignty going to the British Crown, but the Māori text refers to tino rangatiratanga being guaranteed to Māori.
"We often think about that as being self determination or independence, and that's an idea which is actually much more like sovereignty. So that's being retained by Māori. And so it would be inconsistent with that guarantee for Māori to have ceded sovereignty in Te Tiriti."
The debate over tino rangatiratanga and sovereignty - and how they're asserted in Aotearoa - will only continue to evolve.
In this week's Focus on Politics, Political Reporter Lillian Hanly closely examines the debate on whether Māori ceded sovereignty and the political parties' views on the matter.
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