- IJ
215: The meaning of land to Maori
European interests in land were the purchase of individual blocks which were fragmented by the interests held by successive generations of owners. The net effect for the Maori has been disastrous. It has jeopardised, and often prevented, effective use and administration of the land; it has encouraged owners to sell for the want of a better alternative; and it has contributed powerfully to the social and cultural disintegration of land owning groups themselves. The law ought to enable the Maori people not only to re-group their interests for the land’s more efficient use, but also, by calling attention to the tribal origins of the land, encourage the distribution of profits from its use equally among the descendants in the land rather than among the relative few who may have been lucky enough to come to inherit more than others. But that isn't likely is it?
In Māori tradition, Papatūānuku is the land. She is a mother earth figure who gives birth to all things. Papatūānuku had many children with Ranginui, the sky father. Their children pushed them apart to let in the light. The children had more children, including birds, fish, winds and water. They became the ancestors of everything in the world today. Some traditions say that the land first emerged from under water. Some tribal stories, humans were born or made directly from the earth. Whenua, the word for land, also means placenta. People who have authority over an area of land are called tangata whenua (people of the land), although if you are born here you too are a person of the land.
European concepts of land ownership are very different to that of Maori. Land can be exchanged, sold and forgotten. Not so with Maori, whose whole being is connected to the land. Traditional Māori society did not have a concept of absolute ownership of land. Whānau (extended families) and hapū (sub-tribes) could have different rights to the same piece of land. One group may have the right to catch birds in a clump of trees, another to fish in the water nearby, and yet another to grow crops on the surrounding land. Exclusive boundaries were rare, and rights were constantly being renegotiated. To have land bought, sold, taken has had a detrimental effect of their concept of who they were. However, all Maori were immigrants from Polynesia - that must never be forgotten. They were never here in the same way the Sentinelese are on their island and have been for 60,000 years. Maori were only here for 500 years before Europeans found it also. It seems strange that Maori never count in their whakapapa their ancestors back in Polynesia. But there is a theory for that.
But that concept could never exist properly after Europeans came, when even Chiefs sold huge tracts of land for what they could get from the European. There is even a case in Westland where a chief sold land that was not even his to sell. There are those who have claimed rights to a piece of land that no European could ever understand - and I'm not sure that the majority of today's part-Maori would either.
In the late 1830s some Māori realised that, to the settlers, these transactions meant absolute and sole ownership. During this period the number of ‘sales’ rapidly increased because settlers and investors feared that such purchases might no longer be available once New Zealand became a British colony. By early 1840, on the eve of the Treaty of Waitangi, Europeans claimed to own more than 66 million acres (27 million hectares) – more than the total area of the country. There was a lot of greed occurring but also fear of loss, on both sides.
Treaty of Waitangi and the Land Claims Commission
Under the second article of the Treaty of Waitangi, Māori were guaranteed ‘the full, exclusive and undisturbed possession of their lands and estates’, and only the Crown could purchase land from them. The Crown set up a land commission to investigate previous land transactions. No title of ownership would be valid unless granted or confirmed as genuine or fair by the Crown. Land Claims Commissioners Edward Godfrey and Matthew Richmond looked into 1,100 claims in the north of the country, covering 2.2 million acres (890,000 hectares). Their report of 1862 deemed that 500,000 acres (202,000 hectares) had been genuinely sold, and about half of this was granted to settlers.
Pressure to sell land was a key factor in the creation of the Kīngitanga. In 1840 there were only 2000 permanent European residents in New Zealand, and perhaps 70,000 Māori. But by 1858, Pākehā outnumbered Māori. Before European settlement Māori had no concept of selling land, and few chiefs had the mana (authority) to tuku (gift) it.
The Treaty of Waitangi gave the Crown pre-emptive (sole) right of purchase of Māori land. This arrangement had the potential to protected Māori customs and interests, but instead the Crown used its monopoly to aggressively purchase Māori land.
Initially land sales were discussed in open meetings, but by the late 1840s Māori were making secret deals with government officials. Deals with individual Māori or groups who did not represent all the owners caused inter-tribal disputes. In 1854 hui (meetings) in Taranaki and Waikato resolved to retain all the land within certain boundaries. Those who joined this movement swore to maintain a tapu on the land on pain of death.
When Māori living beside Manukau Harbour attempted to sell land they claimed on the banks of the lower Waikato River, they were confronted by a large armed party that had travelled down the river to mark the boundary beyond which no sales were permitted. In August 1854, Rāwiri Waiaua and four other men were killed near New Plymouth for attempting to sell land. In response to what was labelled the Puketapu feud, British troops were stationed in New Plymouth to protect European settlers. (So - it can be clearly seen that Maori were still keen to abandon tradition and sell land for personal gain, even as far back as 1854!)
The year 1854 was significant for another reason: many male settlers now had direct political representation under a constitution that had created an elected House of Representatives. To many Māori, this heightened the need for a king capable of unifying the tribes.
Native Lands Acts
The 1862 and 1865 Native Lands Acts recognised that Māori had rights to uncultivated land, but only if these were specified in a certificate of title. Native land courts were set up to decide which individuals or communities should be recognised as owners and given certificates, bringing Māori landholding into absolute ownership. Once given title, many Māori then sold their land to Pākehā. By 1939 only about 3.5 million acres (1.4 million hectares) of land remained in Māori title.
Let's repeat that.... Once title was given, Maori often sold that land to the Europeans. Sold it... for personal gain. So much for Maori concepts of land or was that because their thinking had changed too much with European education?
Types of Maori Land
From 1900, conversion from customary ownership to freehold was the duty of the Māori Land Boards. However, the Māori Land court continued to deal with Partition Orders. In summary, there were three types of Māori land:
Customary (whenua papatipu): land held according to traditional customs. Prior to 1840, all land was Customary.
Land with a customary Māori Land Court title. Titles created by the Native/Māori Land Court in the 1860s and onwards. The Court only allowed 10 names to be on the titles.
Freehold Māori land. If iwi or hapū wanted to change the status of their land from Customary to Freehold so that it could be on-sold, they needed to apply to the Māori Land court for freehold status.
Between 1862 and 1873 land that had over 20 owners had a ‘Certificate of Title’ in the form of a land grant signed by the Governor. After 1873 these were called’ Memorial of Ownership’ but reverted back to ‘Certificate of Title’ in 1880. Further changes were made through legislation.
Here is the current map of Maori land ownership - https://www.maorilandonline.govt.nz/gis/map/search.htm
One more thing. Much rhetoric abounds about the 'colonisers' stealing land, and raping and pillaging. This does nothing to restore any balance to the racism debate in this land. Here's something from an ODT headline..... "When the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, Māori owned more than 66 million acres of land. By 1975, almost 97 per cent had been sold or taken. Yes, what % was sold? Oh, the ODT and others would never dare mention the exact figure as it doesn't fit the rhetoric that wants you to think all land was taken. It wasn't all taken, most was sold, only a small portion was confiscated due to breaches of the treaty. That is now being slowly sorted through the Waitangi Tribunal. So, Yes, yes, yes, please fix the wrongs, but be wholly transparent in your assertions.
The media seem to be good at headlines that are inaccurate by highly suggestive, aiming to have you think something they want you to think without ever being accused of giving you that false perspective because it's not actually stated (legal reasons) but implied. The media are wholly untrustworthy... at ALL times.
