The Maori party of New Zealand has called for a “divorce” from the crown and removal of the British royal family as New Zealand’s head of state.
The call came on the 182nd anniversary of the signing of the treaty of Waitangi, or Te Tiriti o Waitangi, New Zealand’s foundational legal document.
“If you look at our founding covenant as a marriage between tangata whenua [indigenous people] and the crown, then Te Tiriti is the child of that marriage. It’s time [for] tangata whenua to take full custody,” Maori Pati coleader Rawiri Waititi said.
Photo: Reuters
“This won’t mean the crown is off the hook. If a couple gets divorced, you don’t lose responsibility for your child. This will be an opportunity to reimagine a more meaningful and fulfilling partnership,” he said.
The treaty guaranteed Maori the crown’s protection of their land rights. However, in the 100 years that followed its signing, Maori lost more than 90 percent of their land through a mixture of outright confiscation by the crown, private or government sales and land court practices that did not recognize collective ownership.
Past pushes for New Zealand to become a republic has struggled to gain momentum. Polling from Colmar Brunton last year found that one-third of New Zealanders wanted to cut ties with the monarchy, while 47 percent did not and 20 percent did not know.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said she is a republican and last year said she believed New Zealand would become a republic in her lifetime, but that she would not take action on it during her term.
Speaking at the announcement of New Zealand Governor-General Cindy Kiro, Ardern said she had had “never sensed urgency” from the public to make it happen.
“I’ve been very clear that despite being a republican, I’m not of the view that in the here-and-now ... this is something New Zealanders feel particularly strongly about,” she said.
The call for removing the queen as head of state is a shift in policy for the Maori party, which in 2017 objected to calls for a republic from within Labour.
Under current leadership, the Maori party holds two seats in New Zealand’s Parliament, and is pushing for constitutional reform in New Zealand, including the establishment of a Maori parliament.
“The only way this nation can work is when Maori assert their rights to self-management, self-determination and self-governance over all our domains. Our vision is for constitutional transformation that restores the tino rangatiratanga [full sovereignty] of tangata whenua in this country,” coleader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said.
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