Whakahuihui Vercoe is certainly one of the leading Churchmen of recent times, irrespective of which colour. Have a read through, it is a well written and personal look at the man.
“One hundred and fifty years ago, a compact was signed, a covenant was made between two people…
“But since the signing of that treaty… our partners have marginalised us. You have not honoured the treaty…
“The language of this land is yours, the custom is yours, the media by which we tell the world who we are are yours...
“What I have come here for is to renew the ties that made us a nation in 1840. I don’t want to debate the treaty; I don’t want to renegotiate the treaty. I want the treaty to stand firmly as the unity, the means by which we are made one nation…
The treaty is what we are celebrating. It is what we are trying to establish so that my tino rangatiratanga is the same as your tino rangatiratanga.
“And so I have come to Waitangi to cry for the promises that you made and for the expectations our tupuna (had) 150 years ago… And so I conclude, as I remember the songs of our land, as I remember the history of our land, I weep here on the shores of the Bay of Islands.”
The article concludes...
Sixteen years after his 1990 Waitangi Day speech, how does he assess its value? And in the intervening years, what gains have been made? How much does he think have Maori been able to move away from the margins of New Zealand society?
There’s a tone of resignation in his reply: “My feelings about that,” he says, “are very similar to what I discovered when I took part in war. And that is, in spite of whatever you do, and whatever you say, nothing changes.”
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