Not a Peace-Train, But a Gravy-Train

Fitting Up the Nation

Have you ever wondered what goes on inside the carriages of the Treaty of Waitangi gravy train?  One Maori, David Rankin, a direct descendant of Hone Heke, speaks out.  Encouragingly, he tells us that a growing number of Maori are deeply disquieted with what is more and more becoming evident to be a rort.

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 cased 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 1970's, 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 bring 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 it's 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 won't find any evidence of these multi hundred million dollar settlements. 

Let's be clear.  The Tribunal exists to make lawyers, and a few elite Maori very rich.  It has deprived our people from their birth right and divided and destroyed many of our communities.  The sooner it is shut down the better.

David Hone Heke Rankin
Te Matarahurahu Hapu
Ngapuhi. 

[This article appeared in e-local (Papakura, Clevedon, Takanini, Karaka), Edition 168, March 2015, p.4]

In the light of the above, were the Waitangi Tribunal or any of those who swill chardonnay whilst reclining on the deep leather carriage seats of the Treaty Gravy Train, to label this blog as racist, we would consider it a badge of honour, a compliment.