Maori Party Want Heartfelt National Apology
By Sarah Matheson
Epoch Times Auckland staff
Feb 18, 2008
Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia is calling for an official apology from the New Zealand Government to all Maori people. Her sentiment is being echoed around the country.
The call comes after the new Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, apologised to the Aboriginal people last week, on Australia's Sorry Day.
Mrs. Turia said the apology marks a turning point, for Aboriginal peoples, and for the whole of Australia.
"As we listened, we believed it was sincere. We heard a statement from the heart, and we saw the crowds applaud. Both blacks and whites had tears in their eyes. The apology opened the way for healing to begin," she said.
She said Maori could hardly imagine the impacts of colonisation on 'te iwi moemoea' – the Dreamtime People.
The New Zealand Government has offered similar apologies to Chinese settlers and the people of Samoa.
Mrs. Turia said apologies are routinely given to particular iwi as part ofTreaty settlement packages.
"But such apologies are not freely offered to tangata whenua in same way as the others. They are negotiated and bargained for as part of a settlement package," she said.
"For an apology to have meaning, it must come from the heart, so that trust and confidence can be restored to the relationship," she said.
"Tangata whenua have yet to hear such an apology from the Crown."
She said a typical apology acknowledges certain breaches by the Crown of Treaty obligations, and the effects on the iwi. They do not always refer to injustice or wrongs.
"They are bound up with a financial and cultural redress package which iwi, in the end, can either take or leave. Significantly, they are not offered to iwi outside the settlement framework," she said.
Chairman of Ngati Whatua o Orakei Maori Trust Board Grant Hawke said while an official apology was not necessary for him it may be necessary for other Maori.
"The process that we have now is a good one. I am not saying that it [an apology] is not necessary," he said.
He said, as a hapu member the apologies offered through the treaty settlement negotiation process were "more intimate" and "quite substantial".
"Dealing with the Crown and going through the claim and apologies it show more sense of good will than one day they just say they are sorry," he said.
He said negotiating the terms of the apology feels better to him.
"It is more good will going through the whole process of your claim, that's how I feels. It is special to me."
Kaiwhakahaere/Maori Advisor for Sport Wellington Region Makere Derbyshire said an apology to all Maori is appropriate.
"This to me is the first step in a series of steps that is needed to complete the grievance process."
"We are coming to the end of financial claims, and perhaps the Maori Party's suggestion of an "apology" isn't as far fetched as it first seems," she said.
New Zealand has been flooded with news of iwi settlement claims and many settlements have included an apology, she said.
"But I think a national apology to ALL the Maori People is a necessary step to move forward."
"I would see this official apology as a public address to the Maori People, that the grievances over the many years have been acknowledged," she said.
Labour MP Phil Goff said there is still a "flow on" from the grievances of the past, and understandably so but the Treat of Waitangi Act 1975 has "taken us a long way forward".
"The settlements are symbolic settlements, but the actions taken to right the wrongs are sincere," he said.
Keith Locke said because the leader of the Maori Party is calling for an apology, he believes it must reflect what the Maori people want.
He said Treaty settlements were one way to compensate the Maori people for injustices, but "the settlement process alone is never a total rectification".
In 2002, Prime Minister Helen Clark apologised for racist discrimination the Chinese people faced when they came to New Zealand over 100 years ago, with the poll tax and anti-Chinese laws.
The Prime Minister has also apologised for the injustices arising from New Zealand's administration of Samoa after World War I.
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