It’s said that in war the first casualty is the truth. Increasingly this is now the case in politics and economics as well.
Over the last week or so we’ve witnessed Te Ohu kaimoana crying crocodile tears over the “removal of Maori Treaty rights”.
And sadly many are buying into this bullshit.
Let’s back the truck up a bit ...
Back in 1989 the government began hatching a plan to subvert legitimate Maori authority over the country's fisheries.
The origins of Maori authority are fundamentally sourced in the principal of “mana tuku iho” (mana that originates from the atua and is handed down through the generations.)
This authority was subsequently acknowledged and protected by Te Tiriti o Waitangi:
"Ko te Kuini o Ingarani ka wakarite ka wakaae ki nga Rangitira ki nga hapu – ki nga tangata katoa o Nu Tirani te tino rangatiratanga o o ratou wenua o ratou kainga me o ratou taonga katoa”. And further acknowledged in the English version of The Treaty of Waitangi as “Full and undisturbed possession of forestries fisheries and lands”.
However rather than give force to these principles, the Government sought to transform these obligations and authentic cultural expressions by attempting to co-opt Maori into the exploitative capitalist extractive economic model.
This process of cultural transformation known as “Modernisation” seeks to force Maori by law to abandon customary values, practices and organisation, and become assimilated into western economic and political culture. It seeks to destroy Maori custom and culture by reducing it to a form of economic and political tokenism.
The government of that time needed to create the illusion of Maori support for this to occur and in order to facilitate this they concocted the notorious ‘Sealords deal’ whereby hundreds of Maori leaders were invited to a meeting in Wellington in 1992 to consider a number of proposals including the establishment of a government appointed Maori Fisheries Commission to represent Maori interests. Out of the hundreds of Maori leaders at that meeting only 42 individuals agreed to proceed. This, in the government's opinion, effectively signed away the rights of the entire Maori nation.
This process divided Maori into two camps, those that believed that the deal 'better than nothing' and would go some way towards improving the socio-economic predicament of the Maori, and those who believed that the whole deal was a violation of the Treaty of Waitangi and the traditional Maori worldview (te Ao Maori), and was 'selling Maori short' of what was rightfully one of their most sacred treasure as well as violating the spiritual elements of the resources in question.
Emboldened by the seeming “ease” in erasing a fundamental aspect of Maori Authority and a “Treaty right” the government then embarked upon a complete wrap around “settlement” of all Maori “claims”. The equally notorious Fiscal Envelope.
This travesty was the impetus for the “Tino Rangatiratanga” movement that grew in strength over the next decade and beyond.
As time went by the Maori fisheries commission transformed into Te Ohu Kaimoana which now purports to administer the process of allocation and quota management on behalf of all Maori, and more particularly, Maori commercial fishing companies.
Now let’s cut to the present…
The current situation is that due to overfishing, habitat destruction, and the effects of ocean acidification driven by climate change, life in the oceans is dying at an unprecedented rate. As I write this the massive Great Barrier Reef in Australia is dying before our eyes. We are in the midst of a global marine crisis.
Rather than show restraint in the face of this slow moving catastrophe, the industrial fisheries industry is ramping up its efforts to exploit what remains of the world's fisheries in the interests of its shareholders.
To this current government's credit (and I can hardly believe that I’m saying this) a huge marine reserve known as the Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary has been proposed.
At 620,000 square kilometres, it will be one of the world’s largest and most significant fully protected areas. It will be 35 times larger than the combined area of New Zealand’s existing 44 marine reserves. The sanctuary will mean 15 percent of New Zealand’s ocean environment will be fully protected.
The sanctuary will cover an area of New Zealand’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) from 12 to 200 nautical miles from the five Kermadec Islands of Raoul, Macauley, Cheeseman, Curtis and L’Esperance which lie halfway between the Bay of Plenty and Tonga. It will be the first time an area of our EEZ has been fully protected.
Te Ohu Kaimoana, purporting to represent Maori fishing interests, has been framing their opposition to the constraints implied by the sanctuary as a breach of Maori fishing and treaty rights.
That’s a joke coming from an organisation that was born of the “modernisation” process that destroyed actual Maori and Treaty rights to fisheries.
Make no mistake about it, this is a case of commercial self interest by an irresponsible industry whose days are numbered.
Rather than attacking the proponents of a much needed marine sanctuary what we need to do is continue to hold the industry responsible for its illegal practices such as the widespread dumping of fish and the failure of MPI to prosecute companies engaged in this practice.
Te Ohu Kaimoana is attempting to run the argument that they are defending a fundamental treaty right against erosion by the government, I don’t buy this either.
There have been countless examples of the government eroding Maori treaty rights post settlement, the Foreshore and Seabed Act being one of the most glaring examples in recent times.
That’s why I initiated the mobilisation of over 40,000 Maori to oppose it.
If Te Ohu Kaimoana is serious about protecting Maori rights then they should throw their support behind the Iwi Leaders Constitutional Working group and the good work being done by Dr Margaret Mutu and Moana Jackson.
They should also bring pressure to bear on the government to enshrine the Declaration of Indigenous Rights and support the calls of Ms Prudence Kapua the leader of the Maori Womens Welfare League to this effect.
If Te Ohu kaimoana is serious about protecting our oceans and the rights of Maori they should be adding their support to the growing movement to halt deep water oil drilling and seabed mining in our coastal waters. These activities are a far greater threat to the fisheries than a marine sanctuary for goodness sake.
Rather than attacking the proponents of a much needed marine sanctuary what we need to do is continue to hold the industry responsible for its illegal practices such as the widespread dumping of fish and the failure of MPI to prosecute companies engaged in this practice.
Maori fisheries interests should aspire to the highest ethical and environmental standards
We deserve nothing less.