Waitangi Day (6th Feb): Prof. Rawiri Taonui on “the Journey of Nationhood” but Is NZ Going Anywhere?

Rawiri Taonui: Partnership gives reason for hope – Fundamental questions are at stake. Did the Treaty cede sovereignty in 1840 or was sovereignty acquired over time through the marginalisation of Maori society? Do we enshrine the Treaty in legislation, as the international community via the UN Periodic Review of Human Rights in New Zealand recommends, or, continue to apply the principles of the Treaty, and, if so, who says what they mean? The relationship that was no longer exists. But neither is it lost – it has evolved, changed and matured. Labour is no longer the only place for Maori to be. Maori are no longer the 40000 desperate and destitute of the 1930s that had just escaped annihilation by colonisation and needed a hand up. They are 800000 dynamic descendants of a people who through fighting back have earned the right to be co-equals with all Pakeha, working with this National Government and with the next Labour government….. The full impact of the recession is not over. The OECD suggests just 1.8 to 2.2 per cent growth for New Zealand in 2010. Just 23 per cent of firms are optimistic. Maori unemployment, already at 10 per cent last May, is now probably double the national rate of 6.5 per cent. Maori suffered worse than non-Maori under Rogernomics and Ruthansia, their incomes not returning to early-1980s levels until 2005. The real strength of the groundbreaking relationship between Maori and National will be how much they deliver to Maori. The relationship, a …