What Waitangi Means to Me: Reflections from Tangata Tiriti

This year, we all celebrated a rather different kind of Waitangi Day. Last week, we interviewed three tangata whenua about their perspectives on the day and about te Tiriti o Waitangi and the Christian faith more broadly. This week, we’ve asked the same questions to three tangata tiriti—Lizzie Tafili, Thomas Scrimgeour, and Stephanie Chan 陈雪莹. Here are their responses.

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Firstly, did you do anything to commemorate Waitangi day just past? If so, what did you get up to?

Lizzie: In all honesty, I mainly used the long weekend to relax and rejuvenate. I spent some time reflecting on what I think it means to be tangata tiriti. My mahi involves pastoral work with Māori students, so I often find myself intentionally and intensely thinking about how I can best serve them as tangata tiriti, so when it comes to the weekends, I wish to switch off from these thought processes for a few days.

Thomas: This year was a pretty low-key Waitangi for me, it sort of passed me by, another commemoration side lined by Covid unfortunately.

Steph: I can’t exactly remember what I was doing over Waitangi this year. Unfortunately, it sort of passed by me. I could probably blame it on covid or been-on-holiday-too-long-brainfuzz, but I think I just forgot.

How does this compare to previous years?

Lizzie: For a long time Waitangi day was just a public holiday and I had very little engagement with or understanding of its significance. So I have more engagement with Waitangi Day nowadays, but more so try to think about what it means to be tangata tiriti all year round.

Thomas: In the last few years I have been up to Waitangi a couple of times for the commemorations with the Karuwhā trust, which is a moving and thought provoking experience. Along with the celebrations on the day, Karuwhā queue up some speakers to talk about the story of Waitangi, and Christianity in Aotearoa.  Check out their website https://www.karuwha.org.nz/ for more info.  It really opened my eyes to new ways of seeing and thinking about Christianity in Aotearoa.

I think the challenge for me is finding ways to commemorate Waitangi, even when I’m not able to be involved in big events to commemorate.

Steph: I have been meaning to go up to Waitangi for a couple years now, but haven’t had the chance yet. The last two-three years of my life, I have been introduced to te ao Māori and Māori history in Aotearoa, something I never learnt about in a meaningful way until going to university. For me, now, Waitangi day represents the hīkoi that I am committed to as a Chinese person who was born on this whenua and chooses to call Aotearoa home; my ongoing commitment to Māori as a tiriti partner.

In what ways do you think your faith informs your interaction with Waitangi?

Lizzie: Christianity was very much a key collaborator in the formation and signing of te Tiriti O Waitangi. I think this means as followers in Aotearoa, we have a responsibility to uphold te Tiriti. This means engaging with the effects this document has had on Māori and then reflecting on how I respond as tauiwi, particularly on how as a person and as a church community I/we are an approachable, welcoming and culturally safe space for tangata whenua.

Thomas: I think the most important way in which my faith informs my interaction with Waitangi is believing that Jesus Christ is Lord of history.  At Waitangi we remember a remarkable achievement, and a tragic failure, and we can’t ever extricate one from the other.  Whatever its imperfections, te Tiriti represents a sincere hope that there could be community in Aotearoa that transcends (but does not erase) difference.  Yet it was also produced in a colonial context and marginalised whenever convenient for settler interests. The story of Waitangi cannot be reduced to either of those polarities, but both must be held in tension. Because God is in control, we are freed to name the horrors of our past, without fear that they might consume us; and we can rejoice in the hope that in Christ, God is reconciling all things.

Steph: Waitangi has been marred by historical and ongoing injustice. Christianity, and its entanglement with divinised whiteness, is an accomplice in the colonisation of Aotearoa. Breaches of te Tiriti, the unjust and devastating loss of whenua, te ao Māori, tikanga Māori, were/are met with silence and complacency from the church. Injustice is a cosmic disaster to God and God constantly implores God’s people to act in the face of injustice. Therefore, as a Christ-follower, I must act in the face of historic and ongoing injustice towards Māori.

Do you have a challenge for people reading this to consider in their engagement with Te Tiriti o Waitangi?

Lizzie: When people begin to learn about past and present injustice against Māori, many of them are eager to be proactive and doing what they think is ‘helpful.’

However, when it comes to Te Tiriti and the issues that discriminate against Māori (whether interpersonal, institutional or structural),  tauiwi need to humble themselves, take a back seat and learn from tangata whenua as to how they can be tangata tiriti.

Thomas: What difference does Christ make?  I assume the type of people who read a theology blog about Waitangi day already believe that Te Tiriti O Waitangi is in some sense important, so my challenge is to ask what a distinctively Christian response might be.  It’s a scary question, having read about the rich young ruler who comes to Jesus in the gospels, selling all of our possessions and leaving home might be a real option.

I think we have to start with the local church. People are too quick to think about the national conversation around Te Tiriti and neglect their immediate context- which is the place we are most likely to be able to do anything. Find an opportunity to talk to half a dozen different people in your church, across generations, and go from there.

Steph: Go ask tangata whenua. Learn some uncomfy history. Exfoliate whiteness from your thinking, it has permeated everything. Don’t speak for Māori. Roll your Rs. Act justly. Something like all of that.

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Lizzie Tafili (Pākehā, Sāmoa) works at Waipapa Taumata Rau and lives in Tāmaki Makaurau. Thomas Scrimgeour (Pākehā) is a gardener and undergraduate theology student at Laidlaw College. Stephanie Chan 陈雪莹 (Chinese NZ) is a graduate of Carey Baptist College.