The Violations of the Treaty of Waitangi: How English Colonization Harmed Maori Culture

Colonization is an action or a process of settling among and establishing control over the indigenous people of a particular area. In deeper meaning can be defined as a process by which a central system of power dominates the surrounding land its components. Britain colonized 200 countries which is almost 90% of the countries around the globe. Only 22 countries within the globe were never invaded by the British.

At first, Britain's first motives on colonization was purely for gaining riches for the country as they wanted to be better than Spain. England was having a serious economic depression and in poverty crime rate start going up in England and they start thinking that they have a surplus population which means there are too many people in England(Motivations for English colonization). They started to wonder maybe these people should go elsewhere maybe they should go to other colonies, maybe they could buy more goods, produce more raw materials and find a different place in the social structure and economy of England. Colonization for the British was for bettering their own people and gaining a larger empire. (Motivations for English colonization)

One of the global colonisations I will be talking about is the British vs Egypt. when speaking about the ideas of what Britain’s first motives were for helping themselves gain a bigger empire to rule over is also shown in why they took over Egypt. (Mitchell, 1988). They did it curly for the fact that when England had a war between another country, Egypt's armies would help the British to win. This would make the British sound more formidable and have a better reputation. It also would make them harder to defeat, making the British reign last longer. Also for the fact of benefiting their trade market, for example, the British wanted to control the River Nile so they can choose where the route would go for the ships. This also opened up more countries to ship goods for money. Because India was a main part of the British Empire, they wanted to have a quick way to transport goods back home.

The quickest way that was via the Red Sea. India had useful resources that the British needed. Also, they took control so the Dutch or French could not attack west India via the Red Sea. (Mitchell, 1988). Another country they colonized to benefit themselves was Australia, Even though the government had very little idea about what the colonists would find they still insisted on going and to their luck they gained an important base for its ships. They also found it a suitable place to send their convicts. (Hughes, 2003)

They also migrated thousands of other British there was one of their main motives in the first the place to help with their “surplus population”. (Motivations for English colonization). They were attracted by the easily available land (which led to conflict with the aborigines). They could make a living raising sheep or by catching seals and whales. In 1826 settlers began colonizing Western Australia. The colony of South Australia was set up in 1834. A whole new wave of migration was sparked off in the 1850s by the discovery of gold and the white population of Australia rose by around half a million in 10 years (while the Aboriginal population decreased). (Mills & Wakefield)

There are many discourses on Te Tiriti/Treaty O Waitangi, (Te Tiriti o Waitangi: The Treaty of Waitangi, 1840, 2017). The main three I will be speaking about that really shaped my personal response to this topic would have to be, the respect for Maori culture lost and identity loss/ Maori culture lost even though they sound familiar I feel like it covers a wide amount of knowledge and connects into many more discourses. I made a phone call with my nana and poppa(L. Martin, K. Hokianga, 2019) and they stated “Due to our parents being beaten out of their language and being discriminated against, made them feel like if they weren’t to change themselves into the idea of English should be spoken in the outside world(shops, work, schools) they would not be able to provide for their family or feel a sense of belonging and because we were so young we adjusted to English language easily not only because our parents took away te reo speaking with the household but because in schools it was forced that English be spoken. We always knew in a way that we were missing apart of our identity when we would only go to the pa and hear the kuia’s speak Maori to us to which we couldn’t reply. We would hear a lot from our parents that it is a white man's world. It wasn’t until we got older that we started feeling and noticing the discrimination not for our culture because we didn’t speak it but for our skin color. We missed out on a lot of leaning the tikanga process and the language of our culture because of the fear of what happened to our parents would happen to us”.

Everyone knows the three principles of the treat of Waitangi, The three “P’s” are what they are often referred to which is partnership, participation, and protection. (Te Tiriti o Waitangi: The Treaty of Waitangi, 1840, 2017). I feel the partnership of the treaty was violated when school all over new Zealand banned. Many early English settlers spoke Te Reo to communicate and trade with Māori. Over time, the language declined. The colonists didn’t believe in the sacredness or purpose of Te Reo. This thinking resulted in the ban of Te Reo in many schools and communities. ('Why are Maori not speaking Maori anymore? — Salient)

The English considered speaking Te Reo as disrespectful and would punish school children. For some students, this would lead to public caning. Even in the 1980s, many still discouraged Te Reo and suppressed it in the community. For many years of growing up, I’ve heard stories from my elders about how my great grandparents wouldn’t be allowed to learn te reo due to the trauma that they had to face back in the day if they were to be caught speaking te reo. My nana and poppa had two different stories but ended up with the same ending. The lose of Te reo was unnoticed they were just considered rules that were laid out for them, and for the fact that speaking te reo back in the day didn’t benefit you out in the world as it does in this day in age, working in a Pakeha world meant adjusting to the pakeha ways. (L. Martin, K. Hokianga, 2019)

My great grandfather refused to let me nana speak Maori or have the Maori experiences (example working in the kitchen, playing with cousins) because of the traumatizing hidings he got for speaking te reo, and sometimes just for being Maori. The discrimination he faced on a daily basis was what bought him to the idea that “if my child doesn’t learn te reo or gets involved in a lot around the pa she won’t face what I did” and that choose that my great grandfather made that I completely understand made an impact of my generation. which makes me feel the treaty reneged.

The promise of the partnership was broken and that made my nanas generation and mine suffer the loss of language to our people that could have been passed down even though I have way more opportunities than my nana did, I still feel if te reo wasn’t forced out of school or discriminated against. I would have the easier way to learn and more of a joy learning it from childhood from nana and poppa.