On sovereignty and co-existence

Queens Birthday seems an apt time to gather together a few thoughts and links on ‘sovereignty’ that relate to this land of my birth, Aotearoa New Zealand. As the word was brought to this land by the English, I start with the Oxford English Dictionary which defines sovereignty as: “complete power to govern a country”.  Unfortunately, as every student of the Treaty of Waitangi/Te Tiriti o Waitangi knows, the English and Māori versions of the Treaty differ considerably in their meaning, ‘sovereignty’ had no direct translation into Māori, and these were two very different worlds coming together to work out same way (equitably or not) of being together - even as the number of European arrivals was set to vastly increase.

As New Zealand History online puts it:

In the English text, Māori leaders gave the Queen 'all the rights and powers of sovereignty' over their land. In the Māori text, Māori leaders gave the Queen 'te kawanatanga katoa' or the complete government over their land.

The word 'sovereignty' had no direct translation in Māori. Chiefs had authority over their own areas, but there was no central ruler over the country. The translators of the English text used the Māori word 'kawanatanga', a transliteration of the word 'governance', which was in current use. Māori knew this word from the Bible and from the 'kawana' or governor of New South Wales. Māori believe that they kept their authority to manage their own affairs and ceded a right of governance to the Queen in return for the promise of protection.

It is widely accepted that the use of the words 'kawanatanga' and 'tino rangatiratanga' (in Article 2) contributed to later differences of view between the Crown and Māori over how much authority the chiefs would retain and how much the governor would have. There can be little doubt that the chiefs who signed the Treaty expected to enter into some kind of partnership and power sharing in the new system.

A video of various commentators on ‘the question of sovereignty’ created by the National Library has some interesting points, including these below from Māori academic Mānuka Hēnare, who passed away earlier this year, but the full video can be viewed here.

Prof Mānuka Hēnare: And most of us were born, raised, that we ceded sovereignty, our leaders ceded sovereignty forever and then I think as the Māori history started coming out, then a lot of us had to change our minds, even though our instincts said, that doesn't make sense, but we had no basis for saying it other than I can't imagine our tupuna doing it.   ….  So we've been able to now look at it fairly rationally and, and look at the reactions say from 1831, 1834, 1835, 1840 and then after that in 1847, 1850s, you will find all the Māori leaders, the next generations afterwards, all singing the same song. We did not cede sovereignty, you [the Crown] took it.

However, the expression of sovereignty which I have most come to appreciate recently, including its proposition as being able to ‘co-exist’ with other forms of sovereignty on the same land, is that in the Uluru Statement from the Heart, arising from the First Nations of Australia in May 2017, after a period of long reflection and discussion. The whole of the short statement is worth a read - but below is the key expression of an ancient, unceded sovereignty, which I believe also sheds light on a deeper understanding of sovereignty and coexistence here in Aotearoa :

We, gathered at the 2017 National Constitutional Convention, coming from all points of the southern sky, make this statement from the heart:

Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tribes were the first sovereign Nations of the Australian continent and its adjacent islands, and possessed it under our own laws and customs. This our ancestors did, according to the reckoning of our culture, from the Creation, according to the common law from ‘time immemorial’, and according to science more than 60,000 years ago.
This sovereignty is a spiritual notion: the ancestral tie between the land, or ‘mother nature’, and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who were born therefrom, remain attached thereto, and must one day return thither to be united with our ancestors. This link is the basis of the ownership of the soil, or better, of sovereignty. It has never been ceded or extinguished, and co-exists with the sovereignty of the Crown. …
With substantive constitutional change and structural reform, we believe this ancient sovereignty can shine through as a fuller expression of Australia’s nationhood…..

Let it stand.