...by fair means or foul...
Judge Edward Durie, Chair Waitangi Tribunal:
'Aboriginal peoples are not merely cultural minorities but constitutional entities. From the moment of first settlement, whether by fair means or foul, the regime was created for a constitutional duality... [The Treaty] guaranteed the rangatiratanga (authority) of the Maori as a people, and thus guaranteed all those things people ordinarily have; the right to their own capital resources and their own society and laws so long as they wish to keep them; and citizenship in the new state... The issue is not who did what to whom and when and why, whose rights were extinguished and whose were not... The issue is how to resolve more quickly and fairly the legacy of competing equities... It is not in the interest of anyone, in my view, to bankrupt the country or create new economic uncertainties; but by the same token, it is not too late to begin again, and promote national strategies for the rearrangement of political and economic power in our countries that reflect the Constitutional status of the Aboriginal peoples.'
'Aboriginal peoples are not merely cultural minorities but constitutional entities. From the moment of first settlement, whether by fair means or foul, the regime was created for a constitutional duality... [The Treaty] guaranteed the rangatiratanga (authority) of the Maori as a people, and thus guaranteed all those things people ordinarily have; the right to their own capital resources and their own society and laws so long as they wish to keep them; and citizenship in the new state... The issue is not who did what to whom and when and why, whose rights were extinguished and whose were not... The issue is how to resolve more quickly and fairly the legacy of competing equities... It is not in the interest of anyone, in my view, to bankrupt the country or create new economic uncertainties; but by the same token, it is not too late to begin again, and promote national strategies for the rearrangement of political and economic power in our countries that reflect the Constitutional status of the Aboriginal peoples.'
Keywords: Maori, New Zealand (Aotearoa), treaties, Treaty of Waitangi, 1840
Constitutional Centenary Foundation Conference, 4-5 June 1993.
Author: Strelein, Lisa
Source: 'The Position of Indigenous Peoples in National Constitutions'
Author: Strelein, Lisa
Source: 'The Position of Indigenous Peoples in National Constitutions'