First Peoples International Business Forum - “Looking back to move forward”

Before I commence, as I did at the beginning of the day, I would once again like to acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which we meet, and pay my respects to the original occupants of these ancestral lands, and to the Elders past, present, emerging and yet to come.

I identify closely with this custom of acknowledging the original occupants of the land. In Aotearoa, it is customary to acknowledge the people of a particular territory – the tangata whenua – and the mana or authority that they hold over that territory.

As the visitor or manuhiri to these lands, it is a very Indigenous or Māori thing to acknowledge the customs, languages, histories, struggles, hopes and aspirations of those on whose lands you are visiting.

It’s been a big couple of weeks for New Zealand. My Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern, travelled to Madrid for the NATO Summit, Brussels to announce the conclusion of New Zealand’s FTA with the EU, London to meet with leaders, and to round it off, Melbourne and Sydney to meet with Prime Minister Albanese and to reaffirm our close people, political and business ties, including at the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum.

This engagement with our close friends and family from “across the ditch” comes at a time when we’re both announcing to the world, following our respective responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, that we’re back and open for business!

I understand that our respective leaders spoke about the closeness in what we call the “Trans-Tasman” relationship, built on decades of close collaboration, partnerships on the battle field, competition on the sports field, shared values, movement of people visiting, working, living and contributing to each others’ way of life and economies.

It is fitting that New Zealand’s first ever trade agreement was with our Aussie mates, and that next year we will celebrate its 40th anniverary – that is something worth celebrating!

Another special and unique feature worth celebrating is our respective Indigenous histories. There is much that we can share and learn from each other as we seek a more prosperous way of life for our families, communities and future generations.

It is this opportunity for collaboration between our two peoples that I would like to speak to today.

In February 2020, our then respective Ministers responsible for Indigenous Peoples, Hon Ken Wyatt and Hon Nanaia Mahuta, signed the ‘Indigenous Collaboration Arrangement’. This Arrangement establishes a platform to deepen connections between our peoples, collaborate on areas of mutual interest and share information in a way that is ‘’Indigenous-led, government-enabled’.

The pandemic unfortunately stopped us from meeting kanohi ki te kanohi (face to face), tangata ki te tangata (in-person). I know that the Indigenous Business Sector Group, that is part of the ANZLF, has continued to meet virtually to keep the fires burning, and I’m pleased to hear that there was productive engagement between Indigenous businesses and leaders in Sydney last week.

Now that we’re open for business again, we want to find ways to put meaning, purpose and action into this Collaboration Arrangement.

This Forum provides that very opportunity for our business people to connect, and for us to share experiences and ideas. It is fitting that it is happening now as we acknowledge and celebrate NAIDOC Week. I am inspired by the theme – “Get Up, Stand Up, Show Up”! In Māori we would say, “Kia Kaha – stand strong”.

In that spirit of collaboration and information and experience sharing, I now turn to the topic that I’ve been asked to speak about for this forum – the Treaty of Waitangi and the New Zealand context.

In doing so I would invoke the whakatauki or Māori proverb that says “Titiro whakamuri, kōkiri whakamua”, which means ‘to look back and reflect so you can move forward’.

To look back is a very Māori concept, and I am sure it is something that the First Nations people of these lands identify closely with.

As Māori, we are always looking back for guidance – to our ancestors, genealogy or whakapapa, histories, and mātauranga and knowledge systems.

If I was to introduce myself in a Māori way I might start with the name of the waka or canoe that brought my ancestors to Aotearoa, the name of a common ancestor or tupuna, the name of the mountain or maunga that they blessed as sacred shortly after arrival, the name of the river or awa that provided the lifeforce for my ancestors, the name of their tribe, ‘mob’, or hapū. And lastly I would say my name.

It is not uncommon to repeat that for multiple ancestral lines (!), and for a gathering like this it would take hours to introduce ourselves! That’s an important Māori concept that we call whanaungatanga, which is to make connections. And it takes time to establish deep connections.

Our tupuna or ancestors were truly inspired – to trust in their knowledge, sciences and belief systems, to hop in seagoing vessels, and travel for some 5 weeks or 5,000 miles without sight of land, where they discovered the lands at the bottom of the South Pacific we call Aotearoa.

More and more vessels arrived, anywhere between 800 and 1200 AD, with each group establishing their own sovereign nation with independent customs and rights to the land and resources.

In those nations they established concepts such as mana (the source of rights to a particular area), kaitiakitanga (to care for people and place) and rangatiratanga (absolute sovereingty or chieftainship). Your right to belong to that place – to provide, and to be provided for – was based on your whakapapa or ancestry.

When the European settlers arrived, our ancestors had the vision and foresight to want to protect and preserve those Māori customs and rights in the Treaty of Waitangi – what Article 2 describes as te tino rangatiratanga or chieftainship over their whenua or lands, kainga or villages, tāonga katoa or prized possessions. In addition, Māori were guaranteed the same rights as British citizens, in exchange for the right for the British Crown to govern.

There are many different interpretations and perspectives of the Treaty that have been debated for decades in academia, politics, courts and pubs, but this is briefly the common understanding.

What is not disputed, however, is what happened after the Treaty was signed in 1840, including by my ancestors.

The promises and guarantees in the Treaty were not upheld. Māori lost the majority of their lands (now only owning about 5% of the land), many lives were lost in defence of their lands, villages and resources, and the Māori culture, language and way of life was severely threatened, the impacts of which continue to be felt today.

Fast-forwarding to the civil rights movement in the late 1900s, the Treaty started to get recognition politically, socially and legally. And this is the positive, exciting, future-focus that I want to conclude my remarks on. “Titiro whakamuri, kōkiri whakamua” – we look back and reflect – in this case on the Treaty – so that we can move forward.

Histories could not be re-written or undone, but successive governments have tried to right past wrongs through Treaty settlement packages that have included Crown apologies, monetary compensation and sometimes land and other resources. These settlements have enabled tribes to invest in their economic development and prosperity.

In addition to righting past wrongs, the Treaty also creates ongoing positive commitments on the Crown, including developing partnerships with Māori to achieve better outcomes, enabling Māori participation in matters that concern them, and actively protecting Māori interests.

What that means in practice continues to evolve today, but we are seeing exciting examples of Māori/Crown collaboration to achieve solutions across the social and economic spectrum including in health, education, justice and trade. These partnerships have led to new thinking, new language, new approaches and better outcomes for Māori. We’ve still got a long way to go, but I firmly believe that we’re on the right track.

As Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Trade and Export Growth (Māori Trade) I am particularly committed particularly to partnering with Māori to support benefits for Māori in global trade. This is underpinned by the New Zealand Government’s ‘Trade for All’ agenda to ensure that everyone benefits from international trade.

This includes working closely with Māori groups, and supporting that engagement, to ensure that our international trade policy, including the outcomes we seek in our Free Trade negotiations, reflects Māori interests and priorities.

In our two recently concluded FTA negotiations with the UK and the EU, for example, pursuing outcomes that ensured that Māori benefited from these Agreements was at the forefront of those negotiations. This includes pursuing tariff-free goods access in sectors where Māori are highly represented, particularly in the primary sector. We also want to make sure that Māori can access and benefit from new opportunities including in electronic and digital commerce. And in addition, negotiators, working closely with Māori partners, were able to agree specific Māori Trade and Economic Cooperation Chapters in both the UK and EU FTAs.

These are indeed exciting and new developments – capturing Indigenous interests in international trade policy – as we seek to support Māori economic development and prosperity.

The opportunity for us in this forum is to come together in a spirit of aroha (love) and whanaungatanga (brother and sisterhood) to share experiences, learn from each other, and grow together.

I look forward to our discussions.

Thank you, ngā mihi nui.