Harm of international trade agreements addressed during WAI 3325 Climate Change Priority Inquiry
Dr Maria Bargh’s opening comments during the hearing. Watch her full presentation here from 14.49.00.
From November 25 the Waitangi Tribunal held a groundbreaking priority kaupapa inquiry into government climate change policy.
The claimants alleged that the New Zealand Government’s response to the threat of global climate change was in breach of the Te Tiriti o Waitangi. During the hearing the tribunal investigated whether Māori rights, land and resources are being protected in the face of environmental challenged like rising sea levels, waring temperatures and biodiversity loss.
Ngā Toki Whakarururanga pūkenga Dr Maria Bargh presented evidence during the hearing. In her opening comments, she spoke about how solutions to climate change and the imbalances Aotearoa has cannot be solved by replicating and repeating previous mistakes such as devastating natural environments; polluting waterways; extracting and using non-renewable energies and assuming that the appropriation and accumulation of wealth by a few is fair; and international trade agreements that perpetuate extractivism and fail to honour rangatiratanga.
“At an international level, this power imbalance dynamic is reflected with the Crown unilaterally, without Māori that is, negotiating in signing trade agreements impacting natural resources as though they have the exclusive ownership… This is a breach of Te Tiriti and exceeds the authority of kāwanatanga which should be vetted by rangatiratanga.”
Other experts will be giving evidence in subsequent hearings. Dr Bargh’s evidence and affidavits from India Logan-Rile and Jane Kelsey will be accessible shortly on our website here. Watch Dr Bargh’s full presentation here from 14.49.00.
Moriori Peace Covenant, Nunuku’s Law, wins World Future Policy Award
We send our congratulations to Ngā Toki Whakarururanga pūkenga and chairman of the Moriori Imi Settlement Trust, Maui Solomon, after the Moriori Peace Covenant (Nunuku’s Law) was announced as one of four winners of the World Future Policy Award 2024.
The award, in it’s 13th edition, demonstrates that peaceful solutions to today’s conflicts are achievable and that safeguarding future generations can be successfully integrated into decision making.
The Moriori Peace Covenant (Nunuku’s Law) is an extraordinary commitment to non-violence, peace, and sustainability by the indigenous Moriori of Rēkohu, Chatham Islands. Despite immense aggression and oppression from Māori tribes Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama, followed by willful neglect from the colonial government of New Zealand which failed to provide any protection, the Moriori upheld their commitment to non-violence.
Though this led to tragic losses, the Covenant became a powerful symbol of resilience and integrity. Recognised globally, Nunuku’s Law has influenced modern peace efforts and contributed to Moriori cultural revival, making it a model for intergenerational peace building and sustainability.
Maui Solomon says, “This recognition by the World Future Council of the ancient Moriori covenant of peace is a huge honour for the Legacy. It is also a major step forward in the long-overdue acknowledgement of the contribution that Moriori have made towards peace-making and conflict resolution initiatives around the world.”
The other winning policies for 2024 were the Kauswagan’s “From Arms to Farms” Programme in the Philippines, Well-Being of Future Generations Act (2015) in Wales and Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy.
New ACCTS Agreement Fails Tiriti of Waitangi Test
Ngā Toki Whakarururanga condemns the new Agreement on Climate Change, Trade and Sustainability (ACCTS) with Costa Rica, Iceland and Switzerland for once again failing to meet the Crown’s Tiriti o Waitangi obligations in both its process and substance.
Ngā Toki Whakarururanga pūkenga Maui Solomon, is scathing about the government’s failure.
“There is nothing that more directly affects Indigenous Peoples at this time than the climate crisis, which threatens the very existence of the planet to which we are related and have responsibilities to nurture and protect for future generations.”
But, as far as Ngā Toki Whakarururanga are concerned, the ACCTS is “business as usual – just like any other free trade agreement.”
“Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples recognise our self-determination and right to participate in decisions that affect us. Yet, once again, Māori and other Indigenous Peoples have been excluded from these negotiations. As a result, Indigenous values, responsibilities, and solutions to the climate crisis, are invisible in the ACCTS.”
Ngā Toki Whakarururanga had confidential discussions with government officials during the ACCTS negotiations, as part of a mediation agreement with the Crown arising from the Waitangi Tribunal inquiry on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. But they were not privy to the text for most of this time, nor able to share what they saw or said with others.
“These efforts came to zero. The Crown’s trade agenda provided no space for the recognition and exercise of rangatiratanga, and the responsibilities of kaitakitanga, in relation to te Taiao, consistent with tikanga Māori, which could have helped to provide a meaningful outcome for the environment and the climate crisis.”
Ngā Toki Whakarururanga’s input to MFAT is annexed to the Crown’s National Interest Analysis. A full Tiriti o Waitangi assessment of the ACCTS is available here. Read the full press release here.
IPETCA hui in Peru discusses 2025 priorities
US Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Pita Tipene at the Ministerial Forum.
Ngā Toki Whakarururanga co-convenor Pita Tipene attended the IPETCA kaupapa recently during the week of November 12-14 held adjacent to APEC. The Aotearoa delegation included fellow Partnership Council co-chairs Traci Houpapa and Tane Waetford. They were supported by Liz Mellish, Tai Ahu and Thandi Keet. Highlights included the APEC Ministerial Meeting with Pita representing Aotearoa at the table. This followed the inaugural Indigenous Trade Dialogue in San Francisco last year, hosted by US Trade Representative Katherine Tai.
At the Partnership Council meeting, kanohi ki te kanohi, each country reported on domestic activities and priorities. Consistent themes included leveraging common connections between Indigenous Peoples, engagement, enhancing Indigenous interests and perspectives in trade policy and agreements, traditional knowledge, access to capital, and intellectual property.
Pita’s kōrero acknowledged the land of the Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon and the challenges they face in exercising their responsibilities and duties as the taniwha, powerful guardians, of those homelands. He recalled Āperahama Taonui’s metaphor of the white man as a “taniwha with teeth of silver and gold, with an insatiable hunger for land and resources – not to be feared, just do not allow it to become your God.” In today’s terms, neo-liberal, capitalist theory has not worked for Māori and has even eroded Māori social, economic and political structures based on collectivism. USTR Katherine Tai endorsed that critique of neoliberalism!
Pita warned that, as time passes, we risk getting too comfortable in just talking about ‘business’ and forgetting those aspirations and the challenges that Indigenous Peoples always face in entities like APEC that are not of our making and do not reflect our worldview. IPETCA needs to be a space where Indigenous Peoples purposely work together to create a better future based on our own institutions, our own values and work plans and working strongly and genuinely with our respective governments.
Rebuild of Papawhakaritorito farm following devastating fire
Rebuild of Papawhakaritorito farm following devastating fire
Our aroha goes out to Papawhakaritorito Charitable Trust founder and Ngā Toki Whakarururanga kaihautū Dr Jessica Hutchings and her whānau after a fire destroyed their farmhouse in Kaitoke, north of Pōneke, on November 25.
The Papawhakaritorito farm is dedicated to elevating Indigenous seed, soil and food sovereignty through education, research, and practices that decolonise the current food system. The Trust offers Indigenous-led courses at the farm founded on the principles of Hua Parakore teaching practical growing techniques and how to cultivate mauri-rich food for families and communities.
As well as the farmhouse being destroyed, precious taonga used to carry out their mahi on behalf of the Trust were destroyed in the fire, including heritage seeds, the water pump that supplies water to their maara (garden) and merchandise that helps fund the trust’s initiatives.
Hutchings and her whānau are planning to rebuild the house and have received donations from the community to support them via a givealittlepage. The funds will go towards rebuilding the whare manaaki teaching space; replacing seeds to replant the garden; buying a new water pump to restore the garden’s water supply, and supporting the shop merchandise. Read more about this here.
Hua Parakore: Rebuilding our broken food systems
Dr Jessica Hutchings and Rongoā Māori practitioner Tohe Ashby.
Prior to the devastating fire at their farm, the whānau at Papawhakaritorito celebrated the launch of their series Hua Parakore: Rebuilding our broken food systems that aired on November 4 on Whakaata Māori.
From remote, rural māra kai to urban marae to commercially successful farms, and from Aotearoa to India, the eight-part series follows Jessica as she takes a deep dive into the stories of whānau who are living and practising Māori food and soil sovereignty. It tells stories of regeneration, of engaging and inspiring rangatahi and the wider community through growing, farming, gathering, composting, cooking and eating kai.
“Interwoven with the social and political context of the Food Sovereignty movement, our aim is to connect viewers with the ancient vibrations of this land, and the food-growing and earth-caring practices of our tūpuna,” says Jessica.
“Growing food and restoring the soil is an act of tino rangatiratanga, and this will really help us as indigenous peoples to be able to turn around our food systems, so we can move away from globalised industrial agriculture.”
Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti
More than 50,000 people marched on to Parliament grounds for the hīkoi.
On November 19, Aotearoa saw the largest ever protest, Hīkoi mō te Tiriti, arrive in Pōneke after a nine-day haerenga. As part of the hīkoi, tangata whenua, tangata moana, tangata Tiriti and tauiwi walked from Te Rerenga Wairua to Pōneke, all against the Treaty Principles Bill. Arguably, more than 50,000 people marched on to Parliament grounds for the hīkoi.
Ngā Toki Whakarururanga co-convenor Moana Maniapoto was there. Below she shares her thoughts on the Bill:
“On the same day Sir Robert Nairn ‘Bom’ Gillies died, the Act Party introduced its Treaty Principles Bill to Parliament– a bill the Waitangi Tribunal described as “a solution to a problem that does not exist.”
Politicians who disagree with the findings are slamming the Tribunal as activist. A bit overdramatic. After all, the whole point of the Tribunal is to make recommendations around potential Crown breaches of Te Tiriti and its principles. Act’s Bill would dictate how the Tribunal might hold the Crown to account – and deny Māori what Te Tiriti reaffirmed – tino rangatiratanga.
So what is the problem this Bill is intended to fix? That’s the thing I keep coming back to, just one of the reasons this Bill is highly radical. David Seymour insists his bill provides the basis for a national conversation about the treaty. But it won’t because its starting point is fundamentally flawed.
A genuine conversation cannot be had when a minor political party unilaterally rewrites the treaty with a set of principles which distort the original text and meaning. Then the Crown rolls out a process which deliberately excludes its actual treaty partner – tangata whenua. It’s not the treaty principles that have led to recent divisions. It’s the dishonourable behaviour of the Crown. Nothing about the process or the Bill itself is fair, balanced or accurate.
Anyone who knows anything about te Tiriti understands it represents a unique constitutional relationship. It’s never been about it race. It was an international agreement between rangatira (representing hapū and iwi) and Hobson (representing the English Crown).
Throughout history, and again in recent decades, thousands of Māori – and a growing number of tangata tiriti – from all walks of life have taken part in lively, pro-active, provocative and imaginative conversations about Te Tiriti informed by research – a genuine debate around how to make Te Tiriti work in contemporary Aotearoa; imagining different models based on shared values.
It’s exciting stuff. This exercise the Crown is undertaking is not. As the Tribunal wrote in its second report – “the progressing of the bill is having serious impacts on the relationship between the Crown and Māori… but the bill – if enacted – would kill that relationship.”
New Zealanders have been told that a promise to a minor party in a Coalition agreement takes precedence over the founding document of this country. Let’s see if those who purport to represent the Crown in this Tiriti relationship will do the honourable thing just like Bom Gillies did all his life.”
Moana Maniapoto, Ngā Toki Whakarururanga co-convenor