One New Zealand Foundation Inc.

Maori Chieftain speaks out.

It may surprise many New Zealanders, but a growing number of Maori are fed up with the Waitangi Tribunal, and the entire Treaty gravy train.  There is a stereotype If Maori collecting millions of dollars in settlement money and living the easy life.  The reality is very different.  Here are a few facts:

David Rankin, Ngapuhi kaumatua.

Direct descendant of Hone Heke.

A part-Maori with mana.

1. The Tribunal makes up history as it goes along.  A growing number of New Zealand historians are pointing this out, although most of them are labelled as racist for doing so.  Facts are omitted in Tribunal reports, and evidence is shaped in some cases to fit predetermined outcomes.   As an example, I gave evidence at a Tribunal hearing about my ancestor Hone Heke, the first chief to sign the Treaty.  However, because the oral history of our whanau did not fit with the Tribunal’s narrative, my testimony was excluded.  Yet, several radicals with little knowledge of our history had their testimony included because it fitted with the separatist agenda. This leads to point2.
2. In the 1970s, many of us hoped that the Tribunal would be an organisation that would achieve reconciliation.  It has turned out to be a body that is bringing in apartheid to New Zealand.  This sounds dramatic, until you see how it advocates for race-based access to certain areas, and race-based management policies for Crown land.
3. Treaty settlements make tribal corporations rich, with the help of favourable tax status and often little or no rates to pay.  So with these advantages its pretty easy to become super profitable.  But do you think the average Maori sees any benefit from this?  None at all.  I have been asked several times to be on trust boards and have been offered large sums of money to do so.  I refuse.  History will judge the kupapa (traitors) who have abandoned our people for money.
4. The tribunal is a bully.  Go against it, and you will be labelled a racist or worse.  Yet, who does it help?  Apart from a few elite Maori who have become millionaires from the process, there is no benefit to Maori overall.  Drive through Huntly or anywhere in Tuhoe and you won’t find any evidence of these multi hundred million dollar settlements.

Let’s be clear.  The Tribunal exists to make lawyers, and a few elite Maori very rich.  It has deprived our people from their birthright and divided and destroyed many of our communities.  The sooner it is shut down the better.

David Hone Heke Rankin

Te Matarahurahu hapu

Ngapuhi

And Jim Gray agrees, “When are Maori going to stand on their own two feet”

Greetings people,

This arrived in my Mailbox and I would have to agree 120%. I have experienced on the same number of occasions exactly the same type of treatment whereby correspondence and questions are not published because the responses may not be acceptable to the masses. Despite the fact that Diversity being the core of good Governance I don’t get appointed to any Boards etc whereby one can disagree or debate the issues. Exactly the same as with the Maori Kiwifruit Growers Forum. This whole thing amused me. Despite a record year none of the Maori Growers were asked put their hands in their pockets to fund the meetings and formation. As usual they just held out their hands and as usual the mana came from heaven.

I have asked on a number of occasions the purpose of this Forum and to date have not received an answer. However what I do hear in the background is what I would determine as being the word Separatism and Job creation Some seven people were appointed to the Board who inevitably will all expect to get paid and will actually contribute little if anything to the Industry. I expected the Waitangi Settlements to provide some relief from the burden of taxation, Housing, Jobs and relief of poverty but this has not happened despite all of the supplementary handouts as well. But I know of others, particularly lawyers who have done very well out of the settlements.

David Rankin is exactly right and when are Maori going to stand on their own two feet? Kei hea te Mana?

Heoi Ano

Jim Gray,

Te Arawa, Tainui, Mataatua.