A Christian Migrant’s Response to the Treaty of Waitangi

Ravi and Saro Casinader are regular worshippers at Salvation Army Hutt City Corps, who migrated from Sri Lanka to Aotearoa New Zealand. Ravi shares his reflections on the significance of the Treaty of Waitangi through a cultural and faith-based lens.

When my wife and I migrated from Sri Lanka to Aotearoa New Zealand in 1987, we knew we were moving from one former British colony to another.

Sri Lanka regained independence in 1948 after being ruled by the British for 150 years. When we arrived in this country, we were interested to learn that Aotearoa New Zealand was built on a promise of partnership between the British Crown and Māori as the people of this land under Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi), signed in 1840.

As migrants, we decided to honour both founding cultures of this nation. However, as followers of Jesus, we asked ourselves: How should a Christian respond to the Treaty of Waitangi?

The Apostle Paul said, ‘From one man He made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands’ (Acts 17:26).

We could see that God had placed Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand as the first people of this land—with their own language, culture and social structure.

Naboth’s vineyard

There is a story in the Bible about a man named Naboth, who owned a vineyard close to King Ahab’s palace (1 Kings 21:1–29). One day, Ahab asked Naboth for his vineyard. But Naboth replied, ‘The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my ancestors’.

The land belonged to Naboth’s whānau and iwi, and had been passed down from generation to generation. Naboth also knew that his mokopuna (grandchildren) were depending on it for their future. But Ahab saw it simply as property and was upset and angry at Naboth’s refusal.

Ahab’s wife, Queen Jezebel, arranged to have Naboth killed, which allowed Ahab to take control of his vineyard. But the prophet Elijah condemned Ahab’s actions and prophesied that because he had murdered a man and seized his property, God would punish him and his family. When Ahab showed signs of repentance, God relented and postponed the disaster he had pronounced on Ahab until after Ahab’s death.

The Treaty and broken promises

Land, especially ancestral land, is considered a taonga tuku iho (heritage) by Māori, a treasured resource that is passed down from generation to generation. Before this country was colonised, land was a source of livelihood for Māori and a source of collective identity based on whakapapa, or family history. Māori land is one of the Māori resources the Crown promised to protect under the Treaty of Waitangi.

I was privileged to work as a solicitor for the New Zealand Public Service for nearly 25 years, until I retired from paid work. I took a keen interest in learning about the Treaty and in specialising in the law relating to Māori–Crown relations.
The Treaty is not a contract, but a relationship that continues through each generation. The early English missionaries prepared the Māori version of the Treaty. Because of their Christian teachings, some Māori chiefs regarded the Treaty as a covenant—a sacred promise of partnership—between the Queen of England and Māori, similar to a biblical covenant.

Unfortunately, the meaning of the Treaty in Māori is not the same as that in the English version and there has been much debate about the differences.

The Treaty does not give Māori special benefits or more rights than others. Nor does it take rights away from other New Zealanders. What it does say is that in exchange for the Crown being given the right to govern Aotearoa New Zealand, the Crown guarantees Māori the right to exercise their authority over their own affairs and resources.

But government after government introduced various laws to deprive Māori of their ancestral land. Parliament also passed laws to restrict Māori cultural practices. Māori were not allowed even to speak their own language.

Thankfully, the 1980s and 1990s saw a reawakening of the government’s conscience, with Parliament passing new laws to put things right for Māori, including making te reo Māori an official language of this country.

Over the past 20 or 30 years, we have seen a groundswell of support for the Māori language and culture among many ordinary New Zealanders, especially among young people.

We can see God doing a new thing in our country. As followers of Jesus, we can partner with Him in what He is doing and support Māori to be all that God created them to be as Māori and as the people of this land.

Standing with those who have suffered injustice

I met my wife Saro for the first time when our two families sought refuge at the main Methodist church in Colombo at the height of ethnic riots against our minority Tamil community in July 1983. About 3000 Tamils were killed by mobs from the majority Sinhalese community.

More than a hundred of us Tamils sat in the church as the Reverend Soma Perera, president of the Sri Lanka Methodist Church and a member of the majority Sinhalese community, addressed all of us. ‘Speaking as a Sinhalese, I feel that my hands are stained with the blood of innocent Tamil people,’ he said. ‘I didn’t do any killing, but you will find in Christian teaching the idea of standing together with others—especially with those who are the victims of injustice. And so, I ask my Tamil brothers and sisters to forgive us for what we as Sinhalese people have done to you.’

We were deeply moved by those words. Here was a church leader whose church had opened its doors wide to those affected by the riots, and to hear him ask for our forgiveness was a reminder that we are all bound together as one human family and should support those who have suffered injustice. It was also a reminder of Jesus’ instruction to love our neighbour as ourselves.

Eighteen months later, I proposed to Saro and we were married in that same church where our two families had sought refuge for two weeks.

What might Jesus say about the Treaty?

Speaking of the last days, Jesus told His disciples that just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, so too would God separate people on the basis of how they treated others (Matthew 25: 31–46). ‘“The King will reply,” he said, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”’

Another time, when Jesus’ enemies tried to trap him with the question of whether it was right to pay taxes to Caesar, Jesus responded: ‘Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s,’ (Matthew 22:21).

As Jesus has said that what anyone does to support the vulnerable is as good as providing service to Him, I would think that He would say: ‘Give to the government what is owed to the government under the Treaty, and to Māori what was promised to Māori under the Treaty.’

Our response as followers of Jesus

The Apostle Paul said: ‘There is neither Jew nor Gentile … for you are all one in Christ Jesus’ (Galatians 3:28). Likewise, Māori and non-Māori believers are one in Christ. They have equal access to God and have tūrangawaewae, a place of standing, in the Church.

But this unity in Christ does not deny Māori their identity as a people with their own language and culture. As Pope John Paul II reminded Māori during his visit to Auckland in 1986, ‘It is as Māori that the Lord calls you, and it is as Māori that you belong to the Church, the one body of Christ.’

As well, it is worth remembering that when the apostles spoke in tongues on the day of Pentecost, those in the crowd said, ‘Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our own native language?’ (Acts 2:7–8). What happened at Pentecost shows that when people receive God’s Word in their own language, it connects deeply with them.

It is also helpful to remember that some of the values of Māori culture, such as aroha, manaakitanga, whanaungatanga and kaitiakitanga—that is, love, generosity, relationship-building and stewardship—are very similar to the values that Jesus taught us.

We serve God and the Church better by working with Māori. Through the participation of our Māori brothers and sisters in our church, and by us partnering with them in our community outreach, we can become instruments of God’s love, justice and reconciliation and contribute towards building a better tomorrow and a truly bicultural nation.

Ravi Casinader is a Wellington-based writer and the author of Are We There Yet?, a self-published collection of his reflections as a Sri Lankan migrant to Aotearoa New Zealand. A journalist-turned-lawyer, he retired recently from paid employment. Ravi and his wife Saro worship at Hutt City Corps and enjoy serving in cross-cultural ministry.