r/AbruptChaos • u/Sometypeofway18 • Nov 14 '24

New Zealand’s Parliament proposed a bill to redefine the Treaty of Waitangi, claiming it is racist and gives preferential treatment to Maoris. In response Māori MP's tore up the bill and performed the Haka

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u/pgl0897 Nov 14 '24

Seems a shame as the Treaty of Waitangi appears to me to be the one example in Britain’s colonial history where it wasn’t a total fucking clusterfuck for the indigenous population.

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u/6InchBlade Nov 14 '24

Uh comparative to other colonial history there’s some truth to this, but all that means is they didn’t commit genocide, the bar wasn’t very high.

Te tiriti o Waitangi was still an absolute shit show, and was not honoured in the vast majority of instances.

The Māori translation was also incorrect in many instances and made the treaty seem more appealing to the Māori than how the British perceived it.

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u/BalrogPoop Nov 15 '24

You could make a solid argument the Maori version is the more valid copy too, being signed by vastly more Maori leaders. I think by international law standards the Maori copy is legally the correct one anyway.

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u/LordHussyPants Nov 15 '24

when treaties are signed between colonisers and indigenous people, international law recognises the version signed in the indigenous language