Kāinga: While academics, activists and those with a vested interest argue for co-governance and a partnership between Crown and Māori leaders (a fight this proposal has no interest in joining), the unarguable fact is that Māori, especially rural Māori on ancestral land, represent the worst in almost every negative statistic, in health, education, deprivation and lack of opportunity. Living conditions for some are third world. Gangs and criminality rival honest work and careers, especially as rural industries closed down and their jobs exported overseas.
However, unlike many fractured societies around the world, rural Māori have not lost the supportive framework so clearly identified in Te Tiriti. It fell into ruin but it’s still there. Most hapū not only know where their 19th century kāinga lay, they still own the land. The elders can point to where the whare were. The young, especially those with successful careers in urban NZ, say they would like to return to their ancestral land, but they would need a home for their family and a way to earn an income from the day they arrive.
Since there is finally an appetite on behalf of the public, and the elected leaders in Parliament to do right, to fix the wrongs of the 19th and 20th centuries, in this proposal, a very different solution is put forth. Stop making up words attributed to Te Tiriti that do not exist in it, and take seriously what it actually says. Because the words clearly written in Te Tiriti offer the best roadmap to a better future both for Māori and for all the people of New Zealand.
Rebuild Kāinga: Begin by inviting hapū to petition the Crown to identify the boundaries of their whenua that they, the hapū and their rangatira wish to obtain extraterritorial status. Make it a free-trade zone to enable such jurisdictions to become regional economic engines in which taonga katoa includes common wealth that raises everyone out of poverty.
Note that Te Tiriti does not restrict such protections to people with Māori ancestry. In addition to rangatira and hapū, Te Tiriti promises tino rangatiratanga over whenua, kāinga and taonga katoa to nga tangata katoa o Nu Tirani (all the people of New Zealand), meaning a free-trade zone factory would extend its benefits to anyone within the hapū jurisdiction.
Then identify where on the whenua to build the kāinga, the place where the people will live and work. In many cases it will be on the old site which may either be vacant or still have what today is called the marae. In compensation for Crown predations in the past, the government would provide a package of grants, loans and contracts intended to enable the hapū to rebuild and stand on their own feet.
WHY? Poverty is a state of mind. While the social-welfare system is compassionate as a safety net, when it becomes a way of life tūrangawaewae becomes its first victim. To end poverty, people need a supportive community and a self-supporting local economy that has a positive balance of trade. They need to earn more than they need to spend, and in doing so they need to stand tall, not be dependent on the social-welfare department. Rebuilding kāinga is about rebuilding strong and healthy communities that become part of the solution, not part of the problem.
If this is of interest, read on:
Te Tiriti o Waitangi is an extraterritorial treaty.
Extraterritoriality: the state of being exempted from the jurisdiction of national law, usually as the result of negotiations between equal parties.
Partnership: A formal agreement where two or more parties agree to share decision-making, collectively own property and carry unlimited collective liability for the acts of the partners.
As a treaty, the rangatira and hapū agreed to a colonial form of national governance called kāwanatanga, provided on a local level the Crown protected rangatira and hapū local governance and did not interfere with the hapū’s lands, villages and treasure.
In other words, in the face of a global centralist enterprise – the British Empire – the rangatira negotiated protection of localism – the right to be left alone by the Crown when it came to managing their own hapū affairs.
This was best stated by a Māori academic, Angeline Greensill, Lecturer in Geography, University of Waikato, who posted this online:
Whanau, hapu and iwi relationships therefore continue to be undermined as a result of government manipulation and imposed statutory frameworks which redefine and subjugate traditional Maori tikanga. Presently processes promoted by “Iwi Authorities” actively encourages whanau members to redefine their identities and tikanga to qualify as beneficiaries of settlements which are promoted as delivering benefit some time in the future. By so doing those whanau and hapu members, perhaps unknowingly contribute to cultural engineering which speeds up the severing of their knowledge of ancestral links – whakapapa.
Because of “Iwi Authorities” manipulation (in collusion with the Crown), hapu interests have not only become “unbalanced”, but have become invisible, subordinate and subjugated and consigned to cargo cult status. Iwi Authorities owe their existence to the legislation which empowers them to make decisions normally made by hapu.
Such a practice contravenes Article II of the Treaty of Waitangi which confirms and guarantees absolute power to hapu. The Crown and its imposed western structures fails to recognize tino rangatiratanga and by doing so undermines the political autonomy of hapu to such an extent that under the present treaty settlement processes, the Minister of Treaty Settlements arbitrarily decided that he would negotiate directly with statutary iwi-based organizations, who in turn claim benefits on behalf of hapu with or without their consent .
(note: this quote was found using Google. Copyright is presumed to be held by Lecturer Greensill.)
The Proposed Bill
The Kāinga Restoration Bill proposes to enable rangatira and hapū to rebuild both physical kāinga on their ancestral land, and a robust, self-supporting local economy. It proposes a package of financing, grants, exclusions from centralist regulations and special economic status in the form of free-trade zones consistent with the extraterritorial treaty known as Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Its intent is to reverse Urbanisation by enabling hapū members to move back to their ancestral lands and thrive without undue interference by the centralists.
The Bill:
- Hapū are invited to lodge their interest to restore their kāinga; to identify its location
- Hapū shall be provided a package of loans and grants to rebuild and to grow its local industry
- Kāinga shall be Free Trade Zones, not subject to duties, taxes, rates or fees
- Kāinga shall be akin to local statehood, appointing envoys in treating with kāwanatanga.
- Common Law’s publici juris : water, air and light is free for all who can access it and includes such post-1840 assets such as radio frequencies.
Nga Kāinga Restoration Bill
Proposed Bill
Explanatory Note
Colonialism changed the pre-colonial Māori economy through the introduction of farming to intensify food growing – thus hapū no longer needed the same amount of land that a hunting/gathering society required.
Colonialism changed the Māori economy with the introduction of money as a medium of exchange, thus hapū could sell now-surplus land for money with which they could buy imported livestock and seed, farm implements, metal tools and firearms, English building materials, clothing and luxury goods, all of which greatly increased the hapū’s capacity to create wealth.
These colonial benefits changed the economic basis of the kāinga and were embraced by hapū. This was especially the case with sale of surplus whenua, which enabled hapū and whanau to make money to buy colonial goods. However, some Māori were selling to Pākehā land the sellers did not exclusively own.
Further, while the dominant colonial presence was British, in the absence of a formal claim of sovereignty, other colonial powers, notably France, could make competing claims.
These effects of colonialism produced tensions, especially as firearms made hapū versus hapū warfare more lethal. Accordingly, to address all these effects of colonialism, the Crown representatives proposed Te Tiriti o Waitangi to establish English Common Law, colonial sovereignty and a formal means to convert whenua to real estate when sold to Pākehā.
However, the rangatira and hapū system of governance was based on mana, of which mana whenua was in direct conflict with sovereignty. Under sovereignty, since 1066AD, ultimate absolute ownership of land lies with the Crown who then issues a bundle of rights called real estate. This would not be acceptable to the rangatira at Waitangi in 1840. Accordingly, sovereignty was limited by the lesser concept of kāwanatanga – central governance in which local governance over whenua, kāinga and taonga katoa was excluded from centralist control.
Accordingly, Te Tiriti o Waitangi is an extraterritorial treaty in which the Crown agreed to exempt hapū whenua, kāinga and taonga katoa from interference by central governance.
However, by design or by values, the central government soon sought to expurgate local control.
In the 19th century, the central government used the military to confiscate whenua and destroy kāinga as settlers pressed for more land.
In the 20th century after the Second World War, the central government developed a policy of Urbanisation to strip the kāinga of their young, to the point where kāinga became at best an ancestral marae to which the hapū returned for rites of passage. Many kāinga were abandoned, left to rot, where all that now exists is bare whenua and kāinga memory.
In the 21st century, the Sixth Labour Government proposes to recast Te Tiriti as co-governance, in which the role of Iwi is elevated to benefit a small elite while failing to address the clear terms contained in Te Tiriti o Waitangi. This became a controversial topic and may have contributed to Labour’s loss in the 2023 election.
This Bill proposes to correct Tiriti misinterpretation and to enable rangatira and hapū to restore kāinga and taonga katoa on their ancestral whenua.
- Purpose: The purpose of this Act is to enable restoration of kāinga and taonga katoa on hapū whenua, so rangatira and hapū may exercise tino rangatiratanga as pledged by the Crown in Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
- Context: In Part Two of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the Crown guarantees to nga rangatira, nga hapū and nga tangata katoa o Nu Tirani protection of tino rangatiratanga over whenua, kāinga and taonga katoa. For clarity, nga tangata katoa o Nu Tirani is interpreted to mean any person resident in New Zealand, regardless of ancestry or race, who is resident on such hapū whenua has equal protection under Te Tiriti.
- Definitions
- Kāinga (village): Urban land upon which whare (buildings) are constructed within a clearly delineated boundary between the kāinga’s urban and its surrounding rural land; including:
- Cultural: such as the wharenui (also called wharetapu – the main meeting house), wharekai (dining) and wharekura (school), and
- Commercial: whare-whaihanga (workshops and revenue-generating businesses) and
- Residential: wharepuni (small family homes), which may include chattel housing
- Taonga Katoa (wealth and property): This Act does not presume to set out the full meaning of Taonga Katoa. Instead it is limited to tangible and intangible property within the hapū’s domain and the wealth-creating capacity of a self-supporting local economy.
- Wharepuni: Small family homes on the kāinga. Unlike Pākehā housing, which tends to have a higher level of self-containment with the nuclear family, the wharepuni is part of a broader balance of shared space with the whare puni as private family space surrounded by public space shared by the extended whanau or hapū. In some cases, this design includes a separate wharepaku for bathing and toilet, not physically in the wharepuni.
- Whare-whaihanga: Work places. The traditional whare whaihanga were places to support the weaving and carving activities of the hapū or whanau. In the 21st century, the whare whaihanga are buildings used to create hapū wealth including offices and workshops.
- Clarification: For clarity, while this Act describes the more communal nature of the kāinga, it does so solely to set out the different improvements that may attract different forms of funding. The Crown does not presume to dictate to the hapū how it may choose to design its kāinga or the nature or purpose of the buildings and improvements therein. The basic principle is that cultural whare will be funded with grants, whereas commercial and residential whare will be funded by loans.
- Hapū: Hapū was the highest form of governance at the time Te Tiriti o Waitangi was signed, consisting of its own collective identity made up of subsidiary whanau. For the purposes of this Act a subsidiary whanau may apply and qualify for kāinga restoration in its own right, under the identity of the hapū. In this Act, the rights accorded to the hapū are also accorded to their subsidiary whanau and where applicable, the use of hapū also refers to whanau. The intent of this distinction is to avoid an internal conflict where the whanau wishes to establish tino rangatiratanga over their lands where the hapū may have a conflicting intent. If a whanau owns land in its own right and seeks to restore a kāinga on that land, it may make application without approval of its hapū organisation.
- Iwi: For clarity, traditionally “Iwi” is an identity consisting of hapū descendant from one of the seven waka in the Great Migration or the eighth identity that is unknown such as Moriori. In Te Tiriti, the only reference to iwi is in the last sentence of the first paragraph (ke nga tangata o tona Iwi) that refers to Queen Victoria’s British subjects, not Māori. For the purposes of this Bill, Iwi is not a superior governance unit, although subsidiary hapū may collectively unite (self-funded by nga hapū members, not the Crown) to create a collective hapū voice, should they so choose. For the purposes of this Act the hapū remains paramount.
- Restoration: The restoration of the Crown obligations under Te Tiriti include:
- Application: A registered hapū that owns land upon which a kāinga is or was may apply to restore and rebuild their kāinga and to qualify for the support and status of a Tiriti-protected kāinga. Simple applications shall be for hapū (or whanau) that currently own the whenua in Māori title and where the location of the kāinga is known and available for restoration. Complex applications shall be where land ownership has been lost or the kāinga site is deemed inappropriate due to risk of flood, inundation, or other natural hazard. A preliminary application identifies the proposed restoration. A subsequent detailed application addresses the level of support requested.
- Residential and Commercial Construction Loans and Mortgages: For the first seven years (72 months) after an approved project begins, the Crown shall provide zero-interest fixed-rate 25-year mortgages (zero interest for 25 years) to build homes (including chattel homes) and commercial buildings and infrastructure to enable the hapū or their subsidiary whanau to rebuild their taonga katoa to enable it to become financially independent, not dependent on the state welfare system. At the end of seven years, the hapū shall be responsible for funding and managing its own mortgage bank, and shall take over the portfolio of Crown-funded mortgages within the hapū’s jurisdiction, repaying the Crown for the debt over time.
- Land acquisition: On a case-by-case basis, the Crown may use its powers of eminent domain to acquire on behalf of the hapū, either land surrounding an established marae to be zoned for whare-whaihanga or wharepuni. In the event there is no marae, the Crown may consider applications to acquire greenfield land within the traditional hapū dominion to site the kāinga. Such land will revert to Māori title, be owned by the hapū and be governed under the extraterritorial terms of Te Tiriti.
- Business Loans: To fund through financing the establishment of hapū businesses, including zero-interest business loans for the first seven years to enable the hapū the option to establish its own cooperative bank that it may operate individually or collectively with other hapū. After the seventh year of re-establishment of the kāinga financing will be provided by the Crown at commercial rates available to all banks, or the hapū may elect to manage its own portfolio through a hapū bank.
- 7-Generation Planning: To provide grants for a period of seven years for hapū to retain expert, qualified business advisors to ensure the hapū businesses are established on a sound economic basis to provide for the foreseeable needs of seven generations.
- Culture Grants: For the first seven years after kāinga establishment to provide one-off grants for the rebuilding of wharenui, wharekai and wharekura on the marae, with an extra bonus grant for whare nui that are carved in the traditional fashion.
- Free Trade Zone: A kāinga may apply to the Crown to become a free trade zone, meaning within no taxes, licenses, fees, nor fines for internal hapū matters, shall be assessed or collected by the Crown, nor rates, fees or fines by the territorial authority. Further, goods imported into the kāinga from overseas shall not be subject to border duties, but shall be subject to border controls in regard to controlled or prohibited goods or substances. However, goods made and services provided beyond the borders of the hapū but within the domain of New Zealand shall be subject to the normal taxes paid by the purchaser, and income earned by outside investors where profits pass over the hapū border and are paid to non-hapū entities shall be subject to the laws and taxes of New Zealand.
- Resource Management Regulations: Hapū-owned whenua and kāinga are excluded from regulations of the regional and/or local government district/unitary plan, provided an adequate buffer zone is established by hapū to mitigate adverse impact on adjacent neighbours, and further provided the hapū activities do not add significant new adverse impact on the environment, including climate change, or noxious noise, lights, odours, or pollution beyond the hapū’s whenua boundaries. The hapū will be required to develop, and the Crown to accept, the hapū’s own sustainable management plan and that the hapū follow it to ensure the Crown meets its international obligations in regard to climate change and other environmental protections. The Crown shall retain the right of intervention to protect the physical and natural environment and the wellbeing, health and safety of people adjacent to and beyond the hapū land boundaries. Dams, power plants that supply energy, and mines that sell minerals, that are on hapū whenua but are exported beyond the boundaries of the hapū whenua shall be regulated by the Crown.
- Building Code Regulations: The Building Act shall not apply to construction within the kāinga, however, the hapū is required to develop and enforce its own standards that ensure buildings are warm, dry, safe, durable and have a low carbon footprint.
- Food Regulations: Hapū shall regulate their own food/farming for internal consumption, but comply with Crown law in regard to food sold to persons outside the hapū jurisdiction, and comply with associated external food-growing emissions, runoff and other pollution regulation.
- Liability Insurance: The hapū shall maintain liability insurance for any and all members living in the kāinga sufficient to compensate in the event of an incident between a hapū member and an outsider. This includes sufficient 3rd party-liability insurance on motor vehicles driven outside the hapū boundaries which must comply with all Crown regulations.
- Medical Services: Kāinga residents shall be eligible for New Zealand medical services the same as all the people of New Zealand unless the kāinga formally chooses to provide its own medical services funded and operated by its hapū.
- Transitional Provisions: All persons drawing a NZ pension at the time they move to their kāinga may elect to retain their NZ Superannuation, subject to the laws of the Crown. Likewise welfare beneficiaries including those on disability may elect to retain their dependency on the Crown, but if they do so, they remain subject to all Crown regulations. However, no new applications for Superannuation or welfare benefits may come from kāinga residents. The choice to move to tino rangatiratanga means the hapū takes care of its own.
- Criminal and Civil Law: Within the kāinga, hapū maintains tino rangatiratanga over its legal system. However, for breaches of Crown law, which in most occasions would occur outside the hapū domain, Crown law enforcement remains in place. This includes the right of the Crown to enter the hapū’s kāinga and/or whenua to present a warrant to the rangatira or other hapū representative to enforce Crown Law including the powers to arrest, where the rangatira agrees to fully cooperate, subject to an efficient and rapid appeal process in the event the rangatira disagree with the facts in the case. The role of the Māori Land Court shall be expanded to hear such appeals, to ensure sensitivities to Māori tikanga are inherently respected.
- Existing Māori Enterprises: Any Māori enterprise that was established under the auspices of Te Tiriti shall become collectively owned by the hapū that have restored their kāinga under this Act. For simplicity, initially, the division of ownership shall be equally by kāinga-based hapū (one share per kāinga) but after seven years, shared ownership shall be based on the census of adults living within the kāinga with each kāinga issued one share for each adult member living in their territory. All Māori trusts and enterprises established under Te Tiriti would lose their special status and government funding derived from Te Tiriti, to be replaced by whenua- and kāinga-based hapū ownership that would be subject to Crown Law unless the Māori trust operated solely within nga hapū territory.
- Māori seats in Parliament: Māori seats in Parliament shall be abolished and respective enabling laws repealed. Māori representation in territorial authorities shall be replaced with ex-officio hapū seats that acknowledge the clear separation of tino rangatiratanga in Te Tiriti. All Māori Voting Rolls shall be abolished. In their place, respective hapū shall establish its own internal voting rolls according to their tikanga in accordance with their respective kawa.
- Envoy: Insofar as Te Tiriti is a formal agreement between governing bodies (hapū and the Crown), each respective hapū shall appoint envoys to represent its interests both in central government and in the territorial authority(s) within which the kāinga and the hapū’s surrounding whenua is situated.
- Central Government Envoy: Because pre-colonially there was no central Māori government, and there are too many hapū to provide a manageable representation to central government, eight envoys shall be appointed by waka, in which each hapū that identifies with one of the seven wakas in the Great Migration, and the eighth (unknown) for hapū, such as Moriori. Election protocol shall be determined by the respective hapū, but if they are unable to agree, election shall be by vote, one person/one vote of all members of the collective hapū.
- Envoy Role: Envoy shall have ex-officio seats in Parliament, with the right to speak and to question, but not to vote. The envoy shall have the right of enquiry into all government matters provided they can show how the matter impacts their hapū constituency and excluding matters of national security unless it can be demonstrated to the Governor General that access to such information merits confidential disclosure. Envoy may bring legal action in the Māori court to challenge Crown law that they allege adversely impinges on tino rangatiratanga with respect to their whenua, kāinga and taonga katoa.
- Local Government Envoy: At the local level, each hapū within the respective local government territory shall appoint and present credentials for its envoy to represent its interests with the territorial authority(s), subject to a limit of seven hapū enjoy representatives in territorial authorities who have more than seven hapū in their jurisdiction – in such cases the collective hapū shall elect seven envoy representatives and appoint one leader to speak for the representatives.
- Meetings and Committees: The collective hapū shall have one ex-officio seat at council meetings and committees where the envoy is granted questioning and speaking rights, but not voting rights.
- Judicial Review: The envoy may bring legal action in the Māori court to challenge local government acts or omissions that the envoy alleges adversely impinges on their hapū’s tino rangatiratanga with respect to their whenua, kāinga and taonga katoa.
- Non-Disclosure: The envoy shall be required to sign a non-disclosure agreement with the territorial authority, and the territorial authority shall not be permitted to withhold information on privacy or commercial sensitivity grounds; but if the envoy breaches the confidentiality or is deemed disruptive by the territorial authority, the territorial authority may revoke the credentials, and require the hapū appoint a new envoy deemed acceptable to the authority. For clarity, the envoy does not have to be a member of the hapū, the envoy may be a lawyer or other relevant professional.
- Publici Juris: The Common Law principle of Publici Juris is affirmed in full. Fresh water, air and light is free for all who can access it, and this extends to radio frequencies, airspace above 500 feet and the foreshore, which is regulated by the Crown. Access to fresh water wholly surrounded by a hapū’s whenua shall be controlled by that hapū.
- Urban Māori – Te Tiriti accords protections of whenua, kāinga and taonga katoa to nga rangatira, nga hapū and nga tangata katoa o Nu Tirani (all the people of New Zealand). It does not accord special privileges by virtue of race, ancestry, or ethnic identity. Accordingly all privileges or protections that discriminate, including positive discrimination by race, ancestry or ethnic identity, shall no longer be deemed to have a basis in Te Tiriti o Waitangi.