Titokowaru biography of mahatma

THE REGULATION OF ‘CUSTOMARY’ ENTITLEMENTS BY STATUTE LAW: A PERSPECTIVE FROM AOTEAROA NEW ZEALND ON THE CUSTOMARY FISHERIES QOLIQOLI BILL
DR DAVID WILLIAMS

At the outset I should state that I claim no expertise in the law of Fiji and even less acquaintance with the norms and praxis of custom law in indigenous Fijian communities. I came to this topic as a naïve outsider who was willing to accept a request from the President of the Fiji Law Society to comment on the Qoliqoli (Customary Fisheries) Bill in a paper for his Society’s 2006 annual convention.[1] I soon established that the Qoliqoli Bill was at the centre of intense political controversy during and after the general election in Fiji in May 2006. It has not ceased to attract controversy and it was one of the measures cited by the leaders of the military authorities for their actions in removing the government from office in December 2006. The focus of this article, however, is on the fact that the Qoliqoli Bill was being drafted in Fiji at the same time as a number of Bills were prepared by parliamentary counsel in New Zealand in relation to Mäori ‘customary’ fishing rights. The New Zealand Bills were enacted as the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004, the Maori Commercial Aquaculture Claims Settlement Act 2004, and the Maori Fisheries Act 2004. In both Fiji and in Aotearoa New Zealand, therefore, the modern status of the customary rights of the indigenous peoples of the land, and the role of commercial fisheries in economic development for the benefit of those peoples, are the focus of legislative endeavour – though that endeavour has been thwarted in Fiji thus far. The approaches of the respective jurisdictions are very different indeed, as I will discuss in the last part of this paper.

Legal Pluralism

Although certainly not an expert in the particularities of Fiji law, cultures, and politics, I come to this topic as a disinterested but not an uninterested obs

Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King and Gandhi are all well known as advocates of peace, but not many people, even in New Zealand, have heard of Te Whiti, a Maori leader who practised nonviolent resistance against the British Empire two generations before Gandhi. It is unclear whether Gandhi was inspired by Te Whiti’s philosophy and actions but there is evidence that he heard about him from two Irish visitors who had visited Parihaka, Te Whiti’s model community in New Zealand. This article is an attempt to acknowledge and honour Te Whiti’s life and achievements.

Te Whiti o Rongomai was born in the early nineteenth century in Taranaki on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. As the son of a minor Maori chief, he was educated in Maori traditions and learnt to read and write at a Catholic missionary school. His favourite book in the Bible was Revelations and, in adult life, he often used quotations from the Bible.

The mid nineteenth century saw a period of relatively peaceful coexistence between the Maori and what were small numbers of European settlers. In 1840 the Treaty of Waitangi was signed between the British government and many Maori chiefs giving Britain sovereignty over New Zealand in return for the protection of Maori rights and resources. The meaning of the Act was however, interpreted differently by both sides and is still being contested in New Zealand courts a hundred and sixty years later.

Maori resistance to selling land, however, provoked twelve months of fighting in Taranaki in 1860 and 1861. Neither side was able to force a victory and an uneasy truce existed when, in 1862, the ship Lord Worsley was shipwrecked off the Taranaki coast. A crowd of Maori were waiting for the survivors as they reached the shore. Despite a peaceful reception, one of the white passengers called out to those remaining on the Lord Worsley to throw all the am

Paulette Tamiti-Elliffe, of Dunedin, is proud of the desperate, revolutionary steps taken by her great great-grandfather Tamiti Whanganui and his people when confronted by a seemingly impossible situation.

Today, the world lauds Mahatma Gandhi for his non-violent resistance, which gave India its independence and offered the global community a different way of dealing with conflict.

But a generation earlier, at the bottom of the Pacific, Whanganui and thousands of other Maori from throughout New Zealand, who had gathered at Parihaka, in Taranaki, under the leadership of Te Whiti O Rongomai, had already blazed the path of passive resistance. Despite being confronted by an armed adversary, despite being sent to forced labour in South Island settlements, including Dunedin, they confronted injustice with peaceful determination.

Four generations later, with a Government apology only five months old, Tamiti-Elliffe could not be more proud of the internationally significant movement in which her ancestor played a part.

"It wasn't submission. They upheld their values. They showed leadership at a time of desperation ... and they have left us a legacy.''

However, what tourists travelling through New Zealand this weekend will leave with, is the impression that Kiwis think Guy Fawkes is a big deal. Why else would we spend $5 million to $10 million on what is essentially a one-night fireworks frenzy?

The eponymous anti-hero of this explosive celebration was part of a 17th-century Catholic plot to blow up the Protestant English King and his parliament.

On November 5, 1605, a tip-off led to Fawkes' arrest in the parliament cellar where he was found nursing 36 barrels of gunpowder and a serious intent. He was tortured and executed. The day was then marked throughout England with an annual celebration that included bon

Look at this foreboding portrait of the Māori prophet and leader known as Te Whiti. It’s entitled, “The man of peace and the man of war (Te Whiti and Titokowaru)” and was painted by New Zealand artist, Tony Fomison in 1980.

His full name was Erueti Te Whiti Te Whiti-o-Rongomai III and even if you’ve never heard of him, Te Whiti was an astonishing leader and one of the international founders of passive resistance, or nonviolence direct action (NVDA).

NVDA is the strategic use of nonviolent tactics and methods to bring an opponent or oppressive party into dialogue to resolve an unjust situation. It is used as a moral force to illustrate, document and counter injustices. The best known proponents are from the 20th century, men like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. But Te Whiti employed the method nearly a century before Dr King’s Selma march.

Te Whiti was born in the Taranaki region (that’s the imposing Mount Taranaki in the background in the painting above) during the turmoil of the ‘Musket Wars’, the intertribal battles fought between the Māori in the first half of the 19th century.

He was recognized as a gifted teacher and prophet very early in his life, and so as a child his tribe took care to protect him from the skirmishes.

During this time, a Christian preacher Minarapa Te Rangihatuake taught Te Whiti to read and write by teaching him the Bible. He also became a pupil of Lutheran missionary Johannes Riemenschneider. But far from diminishing his standing in the Māori traditional world, his new-found Christian faith only augmented the respect with which he was held.

By the mid-1860s, his Christian beliefs had led Te Whiti to turn his back on all acts of violence.

However, as he grew into a tribal chief, he assumed responsibility for providing for his tribe. That included holding onto their land. B