{"id":68250,"date":"2025-02-05T18:26:07","date_gmt":"2025-02-05T05:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/?p=68250"},"modified":"2025-02-05T18:36:00","modified_gmt":"2025-02-05T05:36:00","slug":"why-waitangi-day-is-so-special-for-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/why-waitangi-day-is-so-special-for-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Waitangi Day is so special for me"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Waitangi Day 2025 marks 185 years since Rangatira M\u0101ori and the British Crown signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Over the years, I have understood its significance in who I am and how I came to be following the migration of my ancestors throughout history from across the Pacific and as far away as England. The commitments made between people that looked and acted and behaved differently. Not being \u2018as one\u2019 but just being together. Lasting relationships, woven beneath the auspices of our founding document. <\/p>\n\n

The Treaty is an agreement between the British Crown and about 540 Rangatira (chiefs), to take good care of each other<\/a>. It takes its name from the place in the Bay of Islands in Te Tai Tokerau (the North) where it was first signed on 6 February 1840, not too far from where my M\u0101ori whakapapa hails.<\/p>\n\n

Since the Luxon government, we\u2019ve faced many challenges. In just one year, they\u2019ve sent us backwards, restricting our access to consult on important matters of public concern, rushing harmful legislation like the Fast-Track Approvals Act as part of an all-out assault on our natural environment, our drinking water and food sources, and the ocean.<\/p>\n\n

Te Tiriti has always been a contentious issue for many New Zealanders. For some, there is a gap in understanding the Te Reo version – which the majority of M\u0101ori chiefs signed – and the commitments the British Crown and the Chiefs agreed upon. Others feel mamae (pain) because the Crown has not honoured their responsibilities. Today, though, those wounds are reopened with anti-M\u0101ori policy and sentiments from the government, and David Seymour\u2019s Treaty Principles Bill that has caused a deep chasm amongst us.<\/p>\n\n

I\u2019m proud of my mixed heritage. My great-grandfather Leslie Lee, migrated to Aotearoa New Zealand, from England under this agreement. They settled first in the South Island as farmers before his parents moved again to Broadwood. He married my great-grandmother from Pawarenga, Raiha Hunia (Te Uri o Tai). They raised their family, including my Poppy, on their farm on her hau kainga (ancestral home). I never got to meet them, but I understand from stories that their relationship was built on respect and reciprocity, which only comes with a willingness to listen and understand what makes the other different.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Leslie Lee and Raiha (nee Hunia)
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

There\u2019s a similar story for my dad\u2019s mum\u2019s side. John Lees Faulkner migrated from Nottingham to Tauranga, marrying Ruawahine Puihi (Ng\u0101i Tukairangi). William Henry Beazley of Wandsworth, Surrey arrived in Hokianga in 1836 and married their daughter, Elizabeth Faulkner in 1853 and had ten children. Their son married into Scottish and Ng\u0101ti Rangi, Ng\u0101ti Hine, and they too lived on her haukainga, amongst her hap\u016b. Their granddaughter Ngaio, would eventually marry my Poppy.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
A watercolour painting of Elizabeth Faulkner, by Major General Horatio Robley, 1865<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Decades after the Lees, Faulkners and Beazleys immigrated, my mother\u2019s parents arrived from Rarotonga in the mid-1950s, and they too built a life here afforded to them by Te Tiriti.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
My Rarotongan grandparents, Mata (nee Paitai) and Uta-Ariki Lucky-Mave, on the day they arrived in Aotearoa. Taken at Auckland Airport<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Yes, thinking ahead to Waitangi Day has brought many feelings to the fore. My Rarotongan ancestors shared Whakapapa with my M\u0101ori tupuna. They possibly, at some point, traversed the Pacific Ocean within the same fleet. Genetically tied to each other and yet needing a \u2018modern day\u2019 and  \u2018non-Polynesian \/ Pacific\u2019 treaty to reacquaint. Sometimes that feels weird to me. But ultimately, I look in the mirror and see how Te Tiriti literally is how I come to be standing here today as I am. <\/p>\n\n

I am grateful for all the journeys my ancestors took that built all the parts of me. So all these relationships within my wh\u0101nau has been a microcosm of what I imagine of the potential of a Te Tiriti partnership and recognition of Te Ao M\u0101ori, its special place in Aotearoa and what makes it beautiful, important to all of us and worth protecting. <\/p>\n\n

Something that is now more obvious to me because of my mahi, is the Te Ao M\u0101ori worldview of Te Taiao (the natural world), where maunga and awa are seen as our ancestors and treated as such. Where M\u0101ori see themselves as part of the environment, not separate. Where Matauranga M\u0101ori tells us the health of the moana affects the health on the land, and the health of both affects the wellbeing of the people. This is fundamentally why a traditional M\u0101ori worldview sees seabed mining as so harmful, and why they know the harm will be widespread.<\/p>\n\n

I see how our birth-righted responsibility to care for it has been restricted through Crown breaches of Te Tiriti per Article II. But I also see how Te Tiriti is a protection.<\/p>\n\n

Greenpeace Aotearoa is present at Waitangi again this year. It makes me super proud to work with people who can see clearly how all of the issues we are dealing with as a result of the Luxon government\u2019s war on nature, democracy and Te Ao M\u0101ori, are connected<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n

My dear friend and colleague Amanda, who is a champion Tangata Tiriti (non-M\u0101ori person, here by virtue of Te Tiriti) has written this powerful blog<\/a> about the importance of Te Tiriti and the threat of the Treaty Principles Bill to all the other battles we are now facing because of this coalition.<\/p>\n\n

Greenpeace joined the Hikoi mo Te Tiriti and helped mobilise people to make thousands of submissions opposing the Treaty Principles Bill. You can read the Greenpeace submission here<\/a>, and Russel Norman will make an oral submission opposing the Bill on behalf of Greenpeace Aotearoa in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n\n

From 7 February, the Fast Track Approvals Act will begin to receive applications from projects looking to shortcut consents and bypass environmental checks and balances and democratic processes. Australian company Trans-Tasman Resources will be applying to fast track seabed mining<\/a> off the coast of P\u0101tea, in Taranaki.<\/p>\n\n

It\u2019s a fight we\u2019ve been part of, working alongside allies and the leadership of Ng\u0101ti Ruanui. In this fight, I am constantly reminded that Te Tiriti recognises the mana that iwi have of their kainga, including the moana and this is powerful. I know this authority and Te Tiriti must be upheld and protected for this reason, and so many others.<\/p>\n\n

This Waitangi Day, you might hear lots of rhetoric from proponents of the harmful Treaty Principles Bill as removing privileges for some and equalising human rights \u2018for the rest\u2019. I invite you to think about how Te Tiriti can protect your rights to a clean and healthy environment, where we grow and catch food and sustain all life on this planet. I invite you to think about how Te Tiriti can safeguard kaitiakitanga and other matauranga M\u0101ori (M\u0101ori knowledge systems), that seek those same rights for future generations. Recognising and embracing the vision of the two parties that signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi is an important step for us to fight back against the Luxon government\u2019s war on nature.<\/p>\n\n

If you haven\u2019t already done so, please sign our petition to call for a ban on seabed mining<\/a> and send a protest message<\/a> to the wannabe Australian seabed miners!<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n \t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tPETITION: Ban seabed mining in Aotearoa\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Seabed mining is a new threat to the oceans. Now is our chance to prevent the destruction before it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t \n Add my name\n <\/a>\n \t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/section>\n\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Waitangi Day 2025 marks 185 years since Rangatira M\u0101ori and the British Crown signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi. 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Lee","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/294cdee467eed7a8d88f1c8edc1435e36aba63dc27597743729d4b320fe53023?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/294cdee467eed7a8d88f1c8edc1435e36aba63dc27597743729d4b320fe53023?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Juressa Lee"},"description":"Juressa Lee (Te Rarawa, Ng\u0101puhi, Rarotonga) is the seabed mining campaigner at Greenpeace Aotearoa, working to stop seabed mining in Aotearoa, protecting marine wildlife and the delicate ecosystems of the deep sea, move NZ away from destructive extractivism and towards a circular economy. The whakapapa of my wh\u0101nau is a journey through Te Moana Nui a Kiwa. From the Whangape Harbour to Rawhiti via Ngawha, down to Tauranga Moana, over to Tupapa and Ngatangiia in Rarotonga, and north again to Tahiti. My tamariki, through their p\u0101p\u0101, also whakapapa to Toi village in Niue. I was raised by a frugal mother who was always mindful of her impact on the planet, and navigated it accordingly. My dad has always enjoyed nature and instilled in us that there were responsibilities we had to be able to keep enjoying it. This was my very first influence. When I became an adult and then a mother myself, decolonising my life became a priority to raise my tamariki with an unapologetic, Indigenous worldview. Along the way and without realising, my whakaaro around kaitiakitanga began to shift, or rather, return. I felt more responsible, but also more empowered. I connect the dots between 160+ years of colonisation, extractivism, social and environmental harms and injustices and a worldview that sees the environment as separate to people. That people are somehow entitled to take, own, throw away, destroy and degrade. We are witnessing the impacts from living in a system rooted in colonialism and racism and extractive industries are devastating the planet and furthering the climate crisis. Now, wannabe miners are eyeing up the seabed in the South Taranaki Bight, and also seeking to plunder the deep seas. This problem is colossal, but so is our fight to protect te taiao. There are solutions to these issues. We must stop seabed mining before it starts.","url":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/author\/juressa\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/72"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68250"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68262,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68250\/revisions\/68262"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68250"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=68250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}