Sermon preached at the Service held on the Treaty Grounds,
10.30 am, Waitangi Day, 6 February, 2008
The Rt. Rev Pamela Tankersley
Moderator of the General Assembly
Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand
Scripture Readings:
Isaiah 42:1-9 The Lord’s Servant
Psalm 119:1-8 The Law of the Lord
Matthew 5:1-11 The Beatitudes
The Treaty of Waitangi is read in English and in Maori
I runga i te ingoa
O te Mata
O te Tama
Me te Wairua Tapu, Amine
Tena koe te Pihopa, nga rangitira, me nga Kaiarahi o nga Hahe katoa,
Tena koutou, Tena koutou, tena koutou katoa.
Kia tau te atawhai a to tatou Ariki a Ihu Karaiti kia koutou katoa.
Thank you Bishop for the invitation to address this gathering today. Unlike our Anglican, Methodist and Catholic sister church we Presbyterians were not part of the Treaty signing in 1840: we respect that you were. The Pakeha part of our church came to NZ, with equally high colonial ideals, in the 1850’s and 60’s, as the Scottish Church and took over all the land South of the River Waitaki. We came to Aotearoa as a Settler Church, not as a Missionary church. With great evangelical zeal, our Pakeha ancestors thought they could produce the new Edinburgh, the new Kirk, free from all the vices and immorality of the home land.
My guess is that few of them had any interaction with Maori, little notion of the Treaty and its implications or responsibilities, and presumed the crown and the Church of Scotland had every right to sell and buy land. Though other Presbyterian Churches were formed in the North, independently of this Scottish Settlement, the church as a whole was late in offering the gospel to the indigenous people.
But in the 1920’s, post the Great War, a remarkable mission partnership was set up: today I want to tell you that story, a story of our tipuna, of two tall men, two prophets, Rua Kenana and John Laughton. It’s a story of the Presbyterian Church and the Ihareira Church, as found deep in the Ureweras among the Children of the Mist, the Tuhoe iwi. As I am telling this story, I am keenly aware of its relationship to other incidents in our treaty history: the case of Wi Parata and the Bishop of Wellington in 1877 and the events in the Waitoki Valley in the last 6 months.
I want to be clear, I am telling the story, not because somehow we Presbyterians have got it right, but because it is our story, and I hope through it we might all catch glimpses of a better way to be Tangata Treaty, people of the treaty.
So…
In the 1920, the Tuhoe people were reeling from the impact of European settlement (others will be able to tell this story better and with greater personal understanding than me, so forgive me if I appear to minimize it in any way for the sake of the alter events). The slash and burn policy of the militia in the pursuit of Te Kooti and the confiscation of the best land in the Bay of Plenty had driven Tuhoe deep into the Urewera hills. In the midst of this, in the early 1900’s a Ringatu prophet rose by the name of Rua Kenana (Canaan). Rua gathered around him at the foot of the holy mountain, Te Maungapohatu, a community that chose to live differently. He declared that he himself was te Mihaia Hou, the new Messiah, the Maori Messiah. His community lived and grew well, and flourished under his leadership away from Pakeha rules and influence.
But it was not to last: on April 2, 1916, 70 policemen from Rotorua and Wairoa gathered at the village of Ruatahuna, blundered their way down to Maungapohatu to arrest Rua on charges of sedition because he was said to have forbidden his followers from obeying current conscription laws. The resulting fracas resulted accidental shooting and in 2 deaths – of Rua’s son Toki and his Uncle Te Maipi. Rua was carried off to Auckland for what turned out to be the longest trial in NZ legal history. He eventually returned, to a community disparate and destitute: they had sold all their assets to pay for his legal fees. And he returned to meet another remarkable man, the Rev John Laughton, Presbyterian Minister.
The Presbyterian Church had ventured into the Ureweras in the 1920’s with the work of deaconesses. One amazing woman, Sister Annie Henry (from the deep south) had gained permission from the Board of Education to set up a school at Maungapohatu and she called on the church to send someone to help her. Along came John.
Local stories tell of the meeting of John and Rua – Presbyterian and Ringatu, - they eventually became firm friends, with great regard and respect for each other’s mana. Indeed Laughton presided at Rua’s tangi. It is said that Rua told Hone Laughton,”You can have the children and I will keep the adults with me…” Some of those children’s children are here with us today.
The school flourished for many years, with many a Presbyterian mission family living at Maungapohatu. But in the 50’s the school was closed for lack of children. About that time, the Presbyterian Church woke up the fact that considering its Maori partners as in need of mission was no longer appropriate, and an independent Maori Synod was formed.
Which brings us to the present day...
Last year it was my immense privilege to join with Moderator Millie to represent the church in a return journey to Maungapohatu. Along with other leaders of our church, accompanied by the descendents of the missionaries, the teachers and the students, we made our way (somewhat tortuously, down “the road to nowhere”) to the foot of the holy mountain of Maungapohatu. We were graciously welcomed and with great emotion on both sides, we handed over the title deeds of the land that the Mission and the School had occupied. We returned it to the local hapu, the Tamakaimoana tribe of Tuhoe, for we were no longer using it for the purposes for which it had been given to us. We cemented a long term relationship and partnership that can now grow deeper - because of our trust and mutual respect for each other’s mana.
The Venerable Hone Kaa, was gracious in his comments: he suggested that what we had done that day was not only just and right, but also redemptive – freeing us all to go forward in a partnership of aroha love, for the well-being of all.
Blessed are those that hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied,
It’s this spirit it seems to me, which echoes the spirit of the Treaty that we commemorate today.
So now let’s go back to February 1840…
We should not lose sight of the context in which this remarkable Treaty was formulated and signed. There were at the time…
- Terrible relationships between the local settlers and the lawless inhabitants of the Hell hole of the Pacific – otherwise known as the town of Russell
- Growing disputes between the French and the British as to who should claim this beautiful land
- Maori and Pakeha disrespect and violence
- Terrible iwi to iwi intertribal warfare.
Was everyone against everyone else?
In this context, the signing of the Treaty signaled not an “over against” everyone else, but rather a ‘along with” each other. The Treaty determined a partnership, a “covenant” as we in the Judeo-Christian faiths would say, a sacred promise to work together of the good of all. And when seen as a covenant, the Treaty is a living document, giving room for new relationships. As the Hon Anand Satyanand, our Governor General said at this time last year, “Because of the Treaty all of us are able to call ourselves New Zealanders, as Tangata Tiriti.” It gives to even our most recent immigrants the possibility of a space in our nation.
But this is not a sinecure without substance for our race relations. Moderator Mille Te Kaawa read the words of Jesus, spoken in ancient rhythms. Did you hear how that notion of blessedness pervades the reading? Blessedness in a different way, I think. Each phrase reminds us that blessedness comes through the vulnerability, woundedness and struggle of peoples. Blessedness is a process of restoration, of reconciliation and of redemption.
- Blessed are the poor who have nowhere to go except to cry for justice: their voice will be heard.
- Blessed are those who mourn – those who keep alive and lament the stories of struggle and injustice: their voice will be heard
- Blessed are the meek - the ordinary folk who persist in asking questions: their voice will be heard
- Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness; their voice will be heard
- Blessed are the merciful who understand that forgiveness is the ground which makes partnership possible: their voice will be heard
- Blessed are the pure in heart who see a brother or sister in every other person: their voice will be heard
- Blessed are the peacemakers who continually work with people not against them: their voice will be heard
- Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: their voice will be heard
As people of the Treaty, we know that kind of blessedness, and we know it, not in spite of our betrayals and struggles and pain, but through them.
Can we take that blessedness into a contemporary world?
Can the Treaty, a source of blessedness, encourage us to stand not opposite each other in anger and disrespect, but side by side, to face together struggles of the present day and of the future to bring reconciliation, restoration and redemption? Can it help us to face the hard stuff in NZ at this moment and in the years to come?
Our struggles are many –
- Violence in our community
- Abuse of children
- Global warming
- Teenage suicide
- Poverty and unaffordable housing
Are these Treaty issues? Yes, I think they are, because unless we address, them as Maori and Pakeha… and Chinese and Indian and South African and Samoan and all the other variations of ethnicity we rejoice in…, bound together as treaty partners, we will continue to allow individualism and bigotry to win.
When New Zealanders can claim back the importance of the Treaty in our way of life, maybe we will claim back our sense of togetherness and together we may be able to find some better ways of living, in this favored land of Aotearoa New Zealand.
And that for me is what we are doing here today, in our commemoration of the signing of the Treat of Waitangi: affirming again the values that the Treaty signers affirmed in their signing, renewing the value of each and every person in this land, valuing our heritage and our tipuna, and looking to the future too, promising in that commemoration to uphold the basis of our nation, a basis of partnership and mutual respect.
So may God bless us –
Kotahi tonu tatou i roto i te Wairua O Ihu Karaiti
Amene