IF Martin Luther King Were a New Zealander Today EIGHT SCORE and fourteen years ago a great New Zealand treaty was signed, the Treaty of Waitangi. This momentous treaty came as a great beacon light of hope to the early tribal slaves of New Zealand. These slaves had been taken from their tribal homelands. Separated by an injustice, in a land where there was no justice. OUR TRIBES were seared in the flames of this injustice. The treaty came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. HOWEVER, 174 years later, we now have a revised history. A history that is simply not true, a history that vindicates with its lies. This false history is sadly crippling us, enticing an uncomfortable separation once more. 174 YEARS later some New Zealanders are still struggling with poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. 174 YEARS later, some New Zealanders are still languishing in corners of our society, an exile in their own lands. AND SO, we have this book “Cannons Creek to Waitangi”, written to dramatize a shameful condition. INSTEAD OF honouring this sacred treaty, the Crown has given the people of New Zealand a bad cheque, a cheque which has come back marked insufficient funds. IN A sense we have come here tonight to cash a cheque. WHEN THE architects of the Treaty of Waitangi wrote the magnificent words in Article III: “In return for cession of the Sovereignty to the Queen, the people of New Zealand shall be protected by the Queen of England and the rights and the privileges of British subjects will be granted to them.” THEY WERE signing a guarantee to which every New Zealander was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, no matter their ancestry, as there were many, would be guaranteed the unalienable right of “life, liberty and equality in the pursuit of happiness”. IT IS obvious today that New Zealand has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of non-Maori ancestry have no legal right to utilise the great powers of the Waitangi Tribunal. BUT, LADIES and gentlemen, one could not refuse to believe the Waitangi Tribunal, a department of the Ministry of Justice, is a corruption of our Treaty. SO I have come to this hallowed spot tonight to remind New Zealanders of the fierce urgency of NOW. This is no time to engage in the luxury of apathy or to take the tranquilising drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real promises of democracy. NOW IS the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice. IT WOULD be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of “Waitangi Tribunal grievances” will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. I HAVE a dream that one day this nation will rise up and realise the true meaning of greed. A greed that has us sacrificing all of our natural resources to tribal elite… forever. “WE HOLD these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. “A TRIBUNAL that is equal, or none at all”. “One law for all” I HAVE a dream that one day on the green hills of Cannons Creek, the ancestors of former slaves and the ancestors of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I HAVE a dream that the children in my family, whether they are of Maori, Filipino, European or any other ancestry will one day soon, live in a nation where they will not be judged, or separated, by the colour of their skin, or by their ancestry, but by the content of their character. I have a dream today! I HAVE a dream that the winds of separatism will be blown forever from our lands and that they be replaced with a breeze of equality. A gentle warming zephyr, that brings a harmony to ALL the people of New Zealand. “He Iwi Tahi Tatou” “We are now one people” By Andy Oakley
Posted on: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 09:59:21 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015