David Rankin, Ngapuhi kaumatua.
Direct descendant of Hone Heke.
A part-Maori with mana.
It may surprise many New Zealanders, but a growing number of Maori are fed up with the Waitangi Tribunal, and the entire Treaty gravy train. There is a stereotype of Maori collecting millions of dollars in settlement money and living the easy life. The reality is very different. Here are a few facts:
1. The Tribunal makes up history as it goes along. A growing number of New Zealand historians are pointing this out, although most of them are labelled as racist for doing so. Facts are omitted in Tribunal reports, and evidence is shaped in some cases to fit predetermined outcomes.. As an example, I gave evidence at a Tribunal hearing about my ancestor Hone Heke, the first chief to sign the Treaty. However, because the oral history of our whanau did not fit with the Tribunal’s narrative, my testimony was excluded. Yet, several radicals with little knowledge of our history had their testimony included because it fitted with the separatist agenda. This leads to point 2.
2. In the 1970s, many of us hoped that the Tribunal would be an organisation that would achieve reconciliation. It has turned out to be a body that is bringing in apartheid to New Zealand. This sounds dramatic, until you see how it advocates for race-based access to certain areas, and race-based management policies for Crown land.
3. Treaty settlements make tribal corporations rich, with the help of favourable tax status and often little or no rates to pay. So with these advantages its pretty easy to become super profitable. But do you think the average Maori sees any benefit from this? None at all. I have been asked several times to be on trust boards and have been offered large sums of money to do so. I refuse. History will judge the kupapa (traitors) who have abandoned our people for money.
4. The tribunal is a bully. Go against it, and you will be labelled a racist or worse. Yet, who does it help? Apart from a few elite Maori who have become millionaires from the process, there is no benefit to Maori overall. Drive through Huntly or anywhere in Tuhoe and you wont find any evidence of these multi hundred million dollar settlements.
Lets be clear. The Tribunal exists to make lawyers, and a few elite Maori very rich. It has deprived our people from their birthright and divided and destroyed many of our communities. The sooner it is shut down the better.
David Hone Heke Rankin
Te Matarahurahu hapu
Ngapuhi
Well said. I have worked with some wonderful Maori who have never seen a cent of any tribunal settlement.
In-fact If there are some 850000 maori in NZ and 10% make up the so called maori elite.
For every billion dollars paid out by the government (taxpayer) the elite will pocket around $177,000.00.
How many billions have been paid out since the start of Waitangi? – There was over a billion in 2020! No one is saying but looking around we know where the money hasn’t gone.
Well said David. What you have said in general terms is well known, but if a non-Maori had written this the “racist” accusation would quickly be made. As you say, the Tribunal should be shut down – time to stop the gravy train which is disbursing tens of millions to a privledged minority. It is a racist organisation because only Maori can make claims. It was designed to settle historical grievances, but it has become a self-perpetuating entity which, as you say, makes lawyers and tribal elites richer. It is also perpetuates separatism and as you state, the average part-Maori does not see anything of the massive settlements or the accumulated billions of dollars controlled by the tribal corporations.
So good to see a prominent Maori citizen have the courage to make his statement. I’m sure there are others and they need to raise their voices too.
Well said David,
No New Zealand citizen wants a divided or segregated country.
Bang on!! I work with a couple of very good Maori businessmen. I only say “Maori” in this context because I only ever think of them as friends and fellow countrymen. Both are proud of what they have achieved, and very rightly, because they have built good businesses. Both, on separate occasions have said much the same.
Very well said David
Thank you so much – it hurts so many of us ‘non-Maori’ New Zealanders to see this racial split being engineered by a small group of strongly left leaning politicians and a few greedy Maori elite.
A sad personal effect I have noticed is that after 60 years in New Zealand enjoying our multicultural heritage I now absolutely REJECT the Maori language and refuse to use it in any shape or form as it has now become the ‘tool’ of the separatist movement to try to create a 2 class society
Nick Ferrier
Nelson
I lived and played and went to school with the people down the road. I worked with the urban Maori all my working life 6o yrs. none of them saw any money or benefit from any settlement. It seems to me that we are becoming separated from fine people by the greedy.
I have read all these comments and complaints and have had the same thoughts and am amazed at the amount of money given to the Maori in the last 10 years.
When will our respective Governments stop paying out on Treaty claims?
My concern and worry is, WHAT can we do about this?
Richard Hall
David Hone Heke Rankin : 50% maori ,50% fiji,mexican,european or wotever!! … Chief Runamok more likely….. maybe you should use your time @ finding out your better half …. Don`t use your heritage to demeaned displaced Maori .. Colonization was the vessel for theft , murder , rape , pillaging etc…. And guess who holds most of the whenua!!