Māori Academic Says Te Tiriti O Waitangi Relevant For Pasifika People

Thursday, 6 February 2025, 7:55 pm
Article: RNZ

Susana Suisuiki, Pacific Waves Presenter/Producer

A Māori academic says that although New Zealand's founding document, Te Tiriti o Waitangi, is a partnership between Māori and the Crown, it is relevant for Pasifika people.

Today, 6 February 2025, marks 185 years since the signing of the Te Tiriti (or Treaty of Waitangi in English) in Aotearoa.

Huge crowds of people along with iwi (tribe) leaders, dignitaries and the politicians gathered in Waitangi.

"There's a deep history between Māori and Pasifika people," Professor Claire Charters (Ngāti Whakaue, Tūwharetoa, Ngā Puhi, Tainui) told RNZ Pacific Waves.

She said like all people, including Pasifika, Te Tiriti o Waitangi "gives the authorisation for our tangata Te Tiriti peoples to come to Aotearoa/New Zealand."

"It is the basic premise on which settlement was permitted into Aotearoa.

"But I think the relationship between our Pasifika brothers and sisters is particulary unique and particulary close," Charters said.

"While Pasifika peoples are also part of tangata Te Tiriti, they are part of us as Polynesians and Pasifika people," she said.

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