Less than a year ago, co-governance had a future, at least as potentially accepted terminology. Now some iwi leaders want the label removed and replaced, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.
A question mark is added
On April 1 last year following the death of Moana Jackson, The Bulletin had exactly the same headline as today’s with one small but significant difference. There was no question mark. Co-governance had a future, at least as potentially accepted terminology. In less than a year, it’s become loaded with connotation, vitriol and conspiracy, and yet strangely rendered devoid of true meaning. Some iwi leaders, want the co-governance label removed as the means of expressing the modern interpretation of partnership between Māori and the Crown. Yesterday, the prime minister reiterated his view that the term lacked clarity.
The non-existent co-governance agenda
Ben Thomas was press secretary for former minister for Treaty of Waitangi negotiations, Chris Finlayson. In a column yesterday he says he wished he’d white-boarded a different name for “co-governance”, which he describes as a mechanism used in historical Treaty claims during the term of the last National government. It’s a good quip, but Thomas’s column is worth a full read as he catalogues how he thinks the term became tainted by confusion. Thomas is also unequivocal about the non-existence of a co-governance agenda within the current government. He calls the media out on using the phrase “co-governance agenda” when there isn’t one.
Co-governance and He Puapua are “unwanted distractions”
Ngarimu Blair is the deputy chair of the Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Trust. In another piece worth your time, he writes that “co-governance and the “think-piece”, He Puapua, have been parked for now, as voter backlash looks for a home as the election draws near”, calling them “unwanted distractions to most hapū leaders who are simply trying to make the most of miserly Crown treaty settlements to deliver direct and rapid social impact for their people.”
Replace it with “partnership” or “mahi tahi”
Chris Hipkins will meet with the Iwi Chairs Forum today at Waitangi. Newsroom’s Jo Moir details his challenge as an unfamiliar face in the Far North As the Herald’s Audrey Patterson writes (paywalled), some iwi leaders will be asking Hipkins to get rid of the “co-governance” label and replace it with “partnership” or “mahi tahi.” Chairman of the Waikato-Tainui tribal executive, Tukoroirangi Morgan, said the narrative around co-governance had been badly handled and some people were paranoid about it. “Co-governance is a modern expression of partnership,” says Morgan. “This debate on co-governance is full of contradictions because there are a whole number of models in this country that in their own way amplify partnership,” he said citing the establishment of Kōhanga Reo as one example, and the establishment of charter schools or partnership schools by Act as another. Both were funded by the Crown and allowed Māori to educate their children in their own way.