This is good reading. Important reading, from a pākehā, on the pākehā obligations of decolonization
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You know – our world faces huge challenges, much of which comes down to a basic lack of consciousness when it comes to how we treat the other (and by “Other” I mean other humans, and non-humans, including land, sky and sea).
I see the Treaty as a blueprint for the type of consideration that, were we operating on an effective level of consciousness, we would be honouring not because we are bound to do so by a treaty, but because we understood that this is the right, just, and honourable thing to do, and that it is in everyone’s best interests. The acceptance and honouring of differences in the pursuit of successful co-existance requires all these things. Of course indigenous wisdom and knowledge should be protected, promoted, accessible and cherished. Of course the sources of that knowledge (at community level) should not be divorced from that task. Of course the bedrocks of culture, the arts, the language, and all that informs and shapes them, should be cared for. Of course we should engage with integrity and not in a superficial, cursory manner.
These things are all given in a framework that allows for the prospering of humanity.
This, at a time, when the world is CRYING out for guidance on how to be more conscious.
We’re incredibly fortunate to have this blueprint, and the fact that people continue to view it as a historical document, something to be resisted, a burdensome weight of obligations, or even worse as some kind of cash cow, overlooks the greatest potential that it has – to guide us into a more appreciative state of co-existance.
