‘Toitu te kupu, toitu te mana, toitu te whenua’

I have a special association to this word Toitu—it links us directly to one of our tupuna, Tinirau.He left us the challenge: Toitu te kupu; toitu te mana; toitu te whenua. His words carry a deep understanding—a call to hold fast to our culture, for without our language; without the land;without the spirit of being tangata whenua; our essence would be diminished.’ (Tariana Turia MP, speech to Toitu Maori Leadership Summit, 10 July 2012.)

The commitments made by the British Crown in te Tiriti o Waitangi in 1840, as understood by the Maori signatories, were soon broken. With the English text of the treaty translated into Māori, ‘sovereignty’ became ‘kawanatanga’ (governance). While the English text guaranteed Māori ‘undisturbed possession’ of all ‘properties’, the Māori version guaranteed ‘tino rangatiratanga’ (full authority) over their ‘taonga’ (treasures, both tangible and intangible). Many Māori understood that, while agreeing to be subjects of the Crown, they retained tino rangatiratanga over their lands and other taonga, and the right to self-determination.

Very quickly, Māori protest over land loss began. By 1970, vast tracts of Māori land were in Pākehā hands. And Māori had suffered, generation after generation, in the education, health, justice and social welfare systems. Fears grew that te reo Māori itself faced extinction. After decades of struggle to retain their diminishing resources, Māori began to clamour for te Tiriti to be honoured, land sales to be stopped, and past and present injustices to be remedied.

Ngā Tamatoa brought a new, radical edge to Māori protest. In 1972, Ngā Tamatoa, Victoria University’s Te Reo Māori Society and Te Huinga Rangatahi (Māori Students’ Association) gathered 30,000 signatures to Te Petihana Reo Māori, the Māori Language Petition. This asserted te reo as a valuable taonga and ‘humbly prayed’ that Māori language and culture be offered in all schools, as a gift to Pākehā from Māori. It was delivered to Parliament on 14 September. Fifteen years later, the Māori Language Act 1987 made te reo Māori an official language.

1975 was a watershed for protesters demanding the retention and return of Māori land. Te Rōpū Matakite o Aotearoa, led by kuia Whina Cooper, launched the Māori Land March (te hīkoi) in Te Hapua on 14 September with the cry ‘Not one acre more!’. A month later, the 5000-strong hīkoi arrived at Parliament, delivering a memorial of rights from kaumātua and kuia and a 60,000-signature petition to Prime Minister Bill Rowling. On 10 October, the Labour Government passed the Treaty of Waitangi Act, establishing The Waitangi Tribunal to hear Māori claims of breaches of the Te Tiriti.

Protest over land issues gained new strength in 1997–1998 as Joe Hawke led a 506-day occupation of Ngāti Whātua’s ancestral land at Bastion Point (Takaparawhā). The Government had begun confiscating this land in the mid-19th century, and now proposed to sell it for private housing. In May 1978, the Government sent a massive force of police and army to evict the occupiers. They arrested 222 protesters and demolished their meeting house, buildings and gardens. Ten years later, the Waitangi Tribunal supported Ngāti Whātua’s claim to the land. Takaparawhā was returned.

In 1978, Eva Rickard led a protest for the return of Māori land at Whāingaroa occupied by the Raglan Golf Club. It had been taken by the Government during World War II for a military airfield. When this was not needed, the land was not returned to its owners. Later, some of it became a golf course – the protesters were arrested on the 9th hole. The land was eventually returned to Tainui Awhiro.

Beyond the 1970s, protests for the return of Maori land and te Tiriti to be honoured have never ceased.

Ka whawhai tonu matou, ake, ake ake!