Kerri Nuku, Kaiwhakahaere
NZNO Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa

At recent NZNO conventions and events I’ve spoken about Te Tiriti o Waitangi (Te Tiriti) and the way in which Māori health has been politicised. I’m often asked to explain why and how Te Tiriti is relevant to our work as nurses, midwives and healthcare workers, and particularly to our Pākehā, tauiwi, and non-Māori members.

I can’t answer this question in one blog so I will explain so over time. For now, let us look at why Te Tiriti remains relevant to us as members.

Te Tiriti remains a foundational and living document that Māori Chiefs (Rangatiratanga) and representatives of the British Crown (Kāwanatanga) agreed to abide by in 1840, and which we work to honour today. Margaret Mutu, co-author of Matike Mai, views Te Tiriti as “a treaty of peace and friendship, one that promised what the rangatira had asked for: acknowledgement and respect for their absolute power and authority throughout their territories while relieving them of responsibility for lawless British immigrants” who remained ungoverned throughout the lands.

Te Tiriti gave the Crown the right to settle their British citizens in Aotearoa and to set up a government for them, while assuring Māori that they could maintain their way of life – “the unqualified exercise of their chieftainship over their lands, villages and all these treasures”. It is important to remember that treasures – taonga – is more than pounamu and gold: the health of the whānau, hapū and iwi is a taonga; the survival of te reo Māori is a taonga; enduring access to fresh water and ancestral lands are taonga.

For the Māori and Rangatira partners of Te Tiriti, their Tino Rangatiratanga is yet to be realised. The assertion of The Treaty of Waitangi, an English and interpreted replica of Te Tiriti, has enabled the Crown to enforce governance over the taonga of Māori, including themselves and their health. This process was well-practiced by European colonisers and was enacted with guns, disease, death and legislation, such as the 1907 Tohunga Suppression Act. Through force, the Crown established an entirely new way of life for Māori who were no longer allowed to heal and care for their people in the manner they had for centuries.

Māori had no choice but to rely upon the Euro-centric approach to health and medicine that we continue to uphold and enforce. The hostility and distrust many Māori have towards the Crown’s healthcare system is a result of centuries of legislative and policy-enforced oppression and racism. For us Māori health professionals and Members, our role is to advocate for the very existence of our people, through a healthcare system that is inequitable by design. Colonisation has a lot to answer for when it comes to low Māori life expectancy.

The context by which British immigrants found themselves in Aotearoa is thanks to Te Tiriti. Te Tiriti has been recognised as one of the first written immigration agreements in history – it protects the rights and interests of British, and future, immigrants by entrusting them to Kāwanatanga. Apart from the “God, Guns, and Glory” goal of colonisation, the Crown had ulterior motives to sign Te Tiriti. First, the French had landed in Aotearoa and were also hoping for access to the whenua and taonga.

Secondly, the behavior of the British who were already here – whalers, sealers and miners, was at risk of punishment by Māori. Most importantly, Britain was overcrowded and the poor and working class were growing a political and class consciousness. The Crown needed Te Tiriti to minimise the risk of revolt in Britain.

Māori assumed that Kāwanatanga would protect their people just as Rangatira would theirs, yet this continues to not be the case. The removal of Aotearoa New Zealand’s plan to be smokefree by 2025 is already harming non-Māori. The cut to bowel cancer screening is already harming non-Māori. The review of the HPCA Act will harm non-Māori. The rollback of the public health system is not in the interest of our non-Māori members, but in the interests of the Coalition Government’s donors and lobbyists. No one is safe while Te Tiriti is dishonoured.

Not one Government in the history of this country has been able to kill Te Tiriti. The Crown’s legal representatives in Aotearoa have shown publicly that Te Tiriti still applies, although both parties would agree there’s a lot of mahi to be done to honour it.

In future blogs I will address the ‘how’ part of the question – how Te Tiriti is relevant to us as NZNO members: Pākeha, tauiwi, non-Māori and Tangata Whenua. Once we accept the ‘why’, then we can look to the ‘how’. By understanding Matike Mai and the NZNO Draft Constitution we can embed Te Tiriti into our future.