“He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.” George Orwell, 1984

The media and iwi appear to be on a crusade to ‘appropriate’ the truth. For instance, over the past couple of weeks both Radio NZ and the East & Bays Courier have featured items whereby there have been claims made that Ngati Whatua Ōrākei gifted the land for the establishment of Auckland.

In May 1995 the Crown signed a Deed of Settlement with Waikato-Tainui that included cash and land valued at $170 million (since topped up with an additional $260 million, with more to come). The public was told at the time the settlement was "full and final". However, full and final it does not appear to be as the iwi moves beyond negotiating for economic benefits to pushing for statutory power through co-governance arrangements, seats at the council table, and the RMA.

Dr John Robinson, in an open letter sent to the Minister of Treaty Negotiations on November 25th, is highly critical of the Waitangi Tribunal, and is calling for a new approach. Dr Robinson has based his proposal on his personal experiences and observations.

In an article published on Breaking Views on November 14th Bruce Moon, a retired computer pioneer and author of ‘Real Treaty; False Treaty - The True Waitangi Story’, laments the insidious effort to erase our true history, accounts of which appear in the news media almost every day.