And they Were Lead by Their Explorers: Reflecting on Waitangi 2009

Paul writes – Last month, with family in tow, we journeyed to Waitangi. We were welcomed – encouraged to feel at home – this was our place – our story. And so we walked the grounds. We visited the treaty house. We spent time in Te Whare Runanga, with the explorer Kupe at the apex of the gable. We immersed ourselves in the story. We imagined the scenes in the unfolding drama of the day – the story and drama of an agreement made between two peoples to live and work together in one nation.  

 

Two things struck me:

 

I was reminded of Robert Alter’s attempt to reproduce the rhythmic energy of the Hebrew texts in a way that adheres as closely as possible to the meaning and style of the original. So, for example, Alter translates Genesis 1:1 as, “When God began to create . . ." The word “began" is the key in this reading: Creation, for God, is a work in progress. It's a powerful reading that can easily jolt us out of reading of this verse in the translation we are more familiar with: “In the beginning God created…”  I was struck by the “beginning” that is represented by the signing of the treaty. And I wondered, what if, like Alter’s translation, the 6^th February 1840 was the day we began to create this nation, and that this “beginning” and this work of creative and imaginative translation is new a new opportunity every day, i.e. in 1840 we did not “create” and finish with this treaty, but rather we began a journey – we created a “marker” – a place where we could re-visit; where the story could be retold; where new questions could be asked of the treaty in diverse contexts that have changed and will continue to change markedly from those of 1840.

 

On the 6^th February 1840 the peoples of these islands began to create…They made a choice, as we do each day, to face the future, and in the words of Stephen Toulim, to ask about the “futuribles”, to decide together what we will need for an imagined future, and the shape that we’d like that future to take.  

The second thing that struck me was the presence of Kupe the explorer. According to tribal stories, Kupe (with Ngahue) was the first Polynesian to discover Aotearoa-New Zealand. You can read the story here. Others such as Toi followed later. This nation was birthed as the result of risk-takers, imaginatives, and “daring voyagers” – people who chose to leave their familiar ‘Egypt’s’ in search of their ‘promised lands’.

So this Waitangi I’m grateful our explorers, whose ancestors all came from elsewhere. These explorers reinterpret the past in conversation with the contemporary, while all the while having an eye to the future. I’m particularly grateful for: Colin McCahon, Ralph Hotere, Shane Cotton, Witi Ihimaera, James K. Baxter with his “Maori Jesus”, Alistair Te Ariki Campbell, Mike Riddell, Alan Jamison, Steve Taylor, Andrea Hopkins, Hone Tuwhare, Justice Joe Williams, James Campion, Tiki Tane, Dick Frizzell, Bill Hammond, James Belich, Willie Jackson, Michael King, Hariata Ropata Tangahoe, Nigel Brown, Jeffrey Paparoa Holman, Michael Shepherd, Niki Caro, and Glenn Colquhoun.    

Hopeful landscape “markers” for me in this journey remain our coasts, and the braided rivers of the South Island.

Comments

[Jason Goroncy]

Paul, thanks for such an encouraging reflection. The theologian in me is with you all the way. The historian in me wants to know if the distinction you posit between the 'marker' as a fait accompli and that as the beginning of a commitment to journey together on a yet-to-mapped-out path was clear or implied - or even ever stated - in those present. Either way, might this be what Waitangi represents today.

[Paul Fromont]

Thanks Jason. Useful comments. I don't think it's as straight-forward either, but the idealist in me hopes....