Leading from the front issuu

very resistant to being told things. The golden rule is,
facts don’t change people because people decide how
they feel about facts. And when you give facts, you have
to be very careful.
Over the years, Treaty training has become more specialised.
We have to think long term and allow this thing
to evolve. Think about Nga Tamatoa, the Māori activist
group in the ‘70s; they’ve had to wait a long time. Think
about the Māori Language petition of 1972, think how
long it has taken for Māori language to emerge again.
Think about the Great Land March of 1975; think about
Bastion Point in 1978, and the Raglan Golf Course in
1982. These are all high profile cases and most of the
people fighting these causes would have died not knowing
whether their efforts had paid off.
Think 1984 and the new Labour Government and
Geoffrey Palmer, when he brings in what are called Principles
of the Treaty, which are not the Treaty but they are
a small step; and then Sir Robin Cooke who presided
over a famous court case in 1987 and ruled that the Treaty
is binding on the Crown.
So here we are 21 years later and the whole Treaty relationship
is beginning to emerge, even in the schools.
So I think for schools, think a generation. Sadly I think
this generation of teachers, unless they’re already doing
Treaty work, are unlikely to be very effective. It saddens
and puzzles me that of the 200 plus organisations and
workshops that I’ve worked with and facilitated, very few
attendees have been teachers. I would have put them
first on the list but no one has ever come to me and said,
“Our teachers need to know this”.
Ngati Kahungunu used to be a busy hub for Treaty
Workshops but there’s no regular training happening
in the region now. What’s happened and is
it similar around the country?
Taking Treaty workshops is challenging. You’re facilitating
for change on a complex issue.
Another part of workshops is getting the work. If you
present a workshop that doesn’t work well, word will get
around.
When I was facilitating I would say to every group, if
you think this workshop is worth doing, tell everyone;
family, workmates, people you meet on the street. Pat
was a champion at this! I used to have waiting lists because
the people who attended, spread the word.
I have an advantage over some workshop leaders I
think because of my backstory; my Irish heritage; travelling
to Rome in the early 60s; connecting with the
Women’s liberation movement in the late 60s; travelling
through South East Asia in the early 70s and going to
China and North Korea. I went to places that were colonised
and got a global feel for what colonisation was
about. Those experiences built my confidence so I decided
as a white, articulate male Pakeha, back in New
Zealand that I would tackle the top of the system. I would
identify CEOs in Wellington and Christchurch and first of
all I would send them some material, introducing myself.
Before I did Treaty training I’d been involved in anti-Vietnam
war protesting and I worked for CORSO for eight
years. I’ve been to two wars plus I was a prolific reader
so by the time I started I had a global context to put it in;
not just what happened to Māori but what happened to
Aborigines, the Irish, the Scots and so on.
I also trained for 10 years on and off in using Sociodrama,
Psychodrama and Action training methods. People
didn’t sit very long in workshops with me, they were up
and down and it makes a huge difference.
When do you see biculturalism happening in
Aotearoa; true power sharing, by honouring Te
Tiriti?
I see true biculturalism in evolutionary terms. I would say
the relationship is always going to be evolving as it is at
the moment, and it is evolving at speed. But it depends
what it looks like, particularly for Māori. The challenge
is that governments have to take the population with
them otherwise they’re no longer the government and
that’s why education is so vital at every level. Younger
generations are slowly being brought up with the possibilities
of biculturalism in a variety of ways. The influence
is out there with a myriad of things, whether it’s
through broadcasting, government departments, local
government, health boards, community organisations.
There is something evolving in pretty much all those organisations
and the evolution will continue. There will
always be something new to discuss and develop. The
odd thing might backfire as it does with change, but I
think we’re on a roll. We’re living in exciting times and I’m
full of hope for how Treaty education is evolving.
I think government funding for Treaty education is a
must, to ensure that this next and probably most important
step in Aotearoa’s future, will work for all. From 1987
to 1990, as part of New Zealand’s 150 year commemoration
celebrations and Project Waitangi, Treaty workshops
were funded with this in mind. That really created
a buzz around the whole Treaty education space and it
would be great to see that again.
Healing our History through Te Tiriti 205