Conference 2022 is drawing near. It marks our bicentennial celebration as a Christian Church in Aotearoa New Zealand.

We were a missionary rather than a settler church. We started in the north, near our Conference venue in Kerikeri. Samuel and Catherine Leigh and those who followed saw their initial task as the conversion of the local Māori to the way of Christ. Ultimately our leaders were in the thick of translating and persuading Māori chiefs to sign the Treaty of Waitangi. We are a party to Te Tiriti. Honouring it is part of our mandate, our responsibility, as Te Hāhi Weteriana o Aotearoa.

In 1983 we finally accepted our responsibility and committed ourselves to being a bicultural church. However imperfectly, we re-aligned our structures to reflect in some measure the power-sharing relationship implied in the Treaty and to which we had commited ourselves. And while significant work was done during the 1980s and 1990s, there has been a significant ebbing of enthusiasm within Tauiwi since the turn of the century for holding up our side of the partnership. An inertia has set in. This is not a Te Taha Māori problem. It is a Tauiwi one. It is Tauiwi’s responsibility to once again pick up the task.

At Conference 2021 the workshop ‘Being Tauiwi in a Tiriti Honouring Church – A workshop for Tauiwi by Tauiwi’ opened a conversation on the issue. The accompanying video I prepared as a discussion starter can still be seen here: https://studio.youtube.com/video/LpxzMYnqI8g/edit

Over the past few months I have been in regular meetings with a small team of committed Tauiwi who want to see us again fulfil our promised commitments as a Treaty partner. We have varying views on how this can best be accomplished. On the one hand there is a desire for a structured and mandated ‘top down’ approach where a group will once again be established within the life of Te Hāhi to drive the issue.

My own view is that Tauiwi will more effectively become the Treaty partner it needs to be, and Te Taha Māori deserves, when we willingly embrace the partnership recognising how all our lives will be enriched by our doing so. My starting place would be one of encouraging all our people, across every level of the Church, to engage with te reo Māori. It is obvious to me that as we engage with the language we also become more immersed in te ao Māori (the Māori world view). There is an inevitabilty to this. It will increase our confidence, our understanding, our willingness to engage, and proportionally decrease our defensiveness, our anxiety at being found wanting and our resistance to what could become one of the most rewarding experiences of our lives. Our lives will also be enriched as we discover that not only is there more than one way of seeing the world but that an increased openness in this one area will ultimately open up the rest of our lives to more expansive ways of embracing the whole of life.

Having said all this I confess to having struggled to engage with te reo Māori as I might have hoped. I have made numerous starts then for one reason or another have stalled and found myself needing to start again. For those who have a greater level of self discipline to be able to do it on their own, I can commend http://www.tokureo.Māori.nz/ - a brilliant resource that will take one through multiple levels over an extended time in a systematic and manageable way.

Ultimately, for many of us, joining a class with home work and regular accountability, will probably be the most effective way of learning.

My hope is that synods might pick up the ball, research what is available in their districts and encourage our leaders, and ultimately our members, to be willing to take the leap.

I have little doubt that a wholesale embrace of te reo Māori by our people will ultimately see us make huge strides forward in our bicultural treaty-based partnership. And we are likely to embrace it with a measure of joy.