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The Treaty of Waitangi is an international treaty between sovereign hapū Māori & the British Crown. The te reo Māori & English texts are contradictory & irreconcilable: they cannot be read together or converted into meaningful 'principles' because they are diametrically opposed.
The Waitangi Tribunal has found that in international law, under the contra preferentum principle, Te Tiriti o Waitangi in reo Māori is the authoritative text to be applied.
Te Tiriti o Waitangi safeguards tino rangatiratanga (independence, absolute sovereignty) of hapū Māori and grants powers of kāwanatanga (governance) to the British Crown. Kāwanatanga is subject to tino rangatiratanga.
Te Tiriti was the agreement that was debated and agreed by rangatira Māori. Te Tiriti holds over 500 signatures including Hobson's. The Treaty of Waitangi holds fewer than 50.
Currently, the international legal status of Te Tiriti has been left undecided. The question is whether Māori possessed the attributes necessary to have international treaty making capacity under (Western colonial) international law as it was in 1840.
This question is itself racist and ignores that Māori independence was recognised in international law when Māori signed He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni in 1835.
As with all international treaties, NZ colonial law requires that Te Tiriti be incorporated into domestic legislation in order to be enforceable. This has never been done. As such, under our colonial legal system, Te Tiriti has no enforceable power. This discrepancy is racist.
Our colonial legal system, as with all those imposed upon colonised lands, stems from the Doctrine of Discovery of the 15th century, so its inherent racism is unsurprising.
Note, the imposed colonial legal system relies on the granting of kāwanatanga in order to have any legitimacy within the islands of Aotearoa NZ. No other document transfers any right to the British Crown to establish any form of governance here.
What would it look like to truly honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi in our constitution?
