Māori leaders are discussing self-governance and institutional structures with Indigenous tribal leaders from North America at a symposium in Wellington today.
The inaugural Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Symposium at Parliament is focused on sovereignty, kotahitanga, and strategic political action with chiefs from Native American Nations taking the podium to share their experiences and challenges from over 250 years of history.
Helmut Modlik, a symposium organiser and chief executive of Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira, told Breakfast it was a chance for Māori to learn some valuable insights.
“The experience of Indigenous communities in North America have a lot of parallels for us and in many respects they’re actually in a better place than us. And so, it’s an opportunity to share and hopefully, as I said, not make the same mistakes and learn some lessons.”
Chief Kirk Francis of the Penobscot Nation, located in the US state of Maine, said he was looking forward to sharing some best practices around nation building.
Solutions to the ‘heartache, or heartburn’
“Even though we may be at different places in our development, in terms of nation building and self-governance, we believe that we can offer some solutions to maybe some concerns and heartache, or heartburn, that is typically around these issues.”
Modlik said a trip to North America last year by Ngāti Toa senior leaders to indigenous communities in the US and Canada inspired the idea of inviting overseas tribal leaders to Aotearoa.
“To be frank, I was blown away by what I saw in place in amongst the [North American] Nations that I visited.
“After the [New Zealand general election], and the reversals that have occurred under the coalition Government here in Aotearoa in respect of policy that relates to the Māori community, and then the emergent Kotahitanga movement over the course of 2024, we thought it was an opportune time for us to put out the karanga to our brothers and sisters in North America. Tthey kindly responded to that, and they’ve come to share their wisdom.”
Francis said the Penobscot Nation has more than 100,000 hectares of land that is self-government by the tribe.
“We’re rivering people – we’re on about 200 islands on 65 miles (105km) of the Penobscot River – and so, we run about 110 programmes, everything to our own court system, to our own law enforcement, to housing, education, healthcare.”
Beneficial ‘beyond tribal members’
He said the benefit of self-governance is “not just to the tribal people” but to the entire community with services being provided “for a multitude of people”.
“The economics, for example, benefit the entire region, so self-determination, self-governance, the ability to exercise sovereignty over your own citizens is extremely important to overcoming the disparities that we all face as native people.
“When we have healthcare disparities, we have incarceration disparities, we have educational outcome disparities – those are best handled locally by people that understand the cultural point of view and how to be successful in those kinds of things.”
Modlik hopes the symposium will provide “circuit breaking insights on how to achieve our kotahitanga [unity] aspiration”. He said all the hui ā-motu held over the course of the year expressed Māori dissatisfaction with the coalition Government’s direction and actions in regard to policies that impacted Māori.
“What comes next is for us to actually establish the new institutional arrangements that will enable us as iwi and hapū around the motu to when we want to work together, to have the institutional arrangements to do so, and today, I’m expecting there to be insights that will support the achievement of that outcome.
“And at that point, once we have achieved that, well then, we’ll go back to the table and we’ll invite the Government to come back to it to talk to us in a mutually mana-enhancing and respectful way.”
Glossary
kotahitanga – unity
Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira – iwi authority of Ngāti Toa
Ngāti Toa – iwi located in lower North Island and upper South Island
karanga – (depending on context) yell, call, ceremonial call, call to action
hui ā-motu – nation-wide gatherings
iwi – tribes
hapū – subtribes
motu – country
mana – concept that encapsulates esteem, prestige, authority, power, control, status, influence, spiritual, and charisma
