The Sovereign Voice Issue 3 | Page 57

By Jenese James ITNJ AOTEAROA COUNCIL power in this land. Nor does it have the only legitimate the symbolic power and importance of them to the flag. The flag debate and referendum has only served to colonizing power, and so in 1834 British official James open a deep wound and highlight a long-standing griev- Busby, hearing of the plight of the seized vessel and see- ance for our first nation peoples. ing the benefit of uniting the tribes as a collective, called the Chiefs of the Northern districts together to decide The Maori are Tangata Whenua, which means people upon a flag. There were three options and the one they of the land. They were here long before the colonizing agreed upon became known as Te Haki Tuatahi, mean- powers of empire, and although many of them embraced ing the first flag. This flag was given a 21-gun salute, the new peoples who came upon their shores, they never which was an official acknowledgement by King William once ceded their independence or their sovereignty over IV that this flag was now the approved flag of the new what they considered to be their land: Aotearoa. country. This essay cannot begin to explore the depths of injustice and deception that has plagued Maori, but I hope to reveal enough to enable an understanding as to why in these times of media spin and government deception the He Whakaputanga (meaning The Declaration of Independence), and Te Tiriti O Waitangi (meaning The Treaty of Waitangi), is all that stands between Maori and all who live in Aotearoa as one people, and the sign- One year later, in 1935, Busby gathered the chiefs to- ing into power of the Trans Pacific Partnership Agree- gether and they signed He Whakaputanga, The Declara- ment. And it all starts with a flag. tion of Independence. The chiefs declared themselves rulers of New Zealand, giving themselves Kingitanga, New Zealand is now, as it was then, under Admiralty meaning sovereign power, and declared New Zealand a law — the law of the sea. Maori were seafarers and Whenua Rangatira, which means an independent state. traders. In the newly emerging colonial era one of their Then they laid out the protocol for a Huihuinga, mean- ships was detained by officials in Sydney, Australia for ing congress, that would meet each year in the autumn flying only a plain woven flax flag. Under admiralty law to make laws and decisions. He Whakaputanga, The an officially recognized flag was essential as it represent- Declaration of Independence, asserting their Kingitanga ed the right to TRADE; it gave DUE AUTHORITY to and Whenua Rangatira was then sent to England and that country or nation to be able to ‘officially’ trade with was accepted and recognised by King William the IV. other countries. Thusly the chiefs had formed a United Confederation of Tribes and had their first flag, Te Haki Tuatahi. Flags are not traditional to Maori, but they recognized Nothing is ever quite as it seems whenever empire is TheSovereignVoice.Org