Ngapuhi Festival forum to focus on declaration signed in 1835

The history and significance of the 1835 Declaration of Independence - He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Niu Tireni - will be the focus of a rangatira forum at the Ngapuhi Festival at Kaikohe on January 30.
Te Runanga-a-iwi o Ngapuhi chairman Raniera (Sonny) Tau and Erima Henare of Ngati Hine will lead the forum, in which Ngapuhi rangatira will participate and provide information.
The forum will be a prelude to Waitangi Tribunal hearings expected to begin at Waitangi in March to define the intentions of Maori rangatira and Crown officials before the signing of He Whakaputanga and Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi) in 1840.
The next step will be to define Maori and Crown intentions after the treaty was signed. Reaching common ground on those issues is seen as necessary before the tribunal sets a date to hear the hundreds of treaty settlement claims lodged in its Te Paparahi o te Raki inquiry district, which extends south from Muriwhenua in the Far North to the Tamaki River on the Auckland isthmus.
At the festival forum, Mr Tau will discuss the impact the hearings could have on the future of Ngapuhi and Mr Henare will give the historical background of He Whakaputanga.
People attending the festival will have the opportunity to ask questions.
Mr Tau said  runanga roadshows last year had highlighted the fact  many of the 123,000 Ngapuhi in New Zealand and Australia were not fully aware of the importance of He Whakaputanga or the difference between the English version of the treaty and the Maori-language Te Tiriti.
Mr Henare said history taught in New Zealand schools bypassed  those two important documents, which made up this country's Magna Carta.
He Whakaputanga was signed by 34 northern chiefs on October 28, 1835, and formally acknowledged by the Crown in 1836. By 1839 there were 52 names on the declaration, including that of Waikato Tainui ariki Te Wherowhero.
The declaration states all sovereign power and authority in the land ("Ko te Kingitanga ko te mana i te w[h]enua") resided with the chiefs "in their collective capacity", expressed as the United Tribes of New Zealand.
It also states that, in return for the "friendship and protection" Maori were to give British subjects in New Zealand, the chiefs invited King William IV "to continue to be the parent (matua) of their infant state and its protector from all attempts upon its independence".
Te Tiriti o Waitangi in the Maori language was the only version of the treaty signed by the chiefs and Governor William Hobson on February 6, 1840.
And it was the only version Governor Hobson authorised to be signed later by other chiefs.