Solidarity Statement with Tangata Māori
Ka Lāhui Hawaiʻi – Statement of Solidarity
Februry 4, 2026
Waitangi, Aotearoa
Ka Lāhui Hawaiʻi, a Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) initiative for self-determination formed in 1987, stands in steadfast solidarity with tangata Māori — our relatives of Moana Nui a Kanaloa — against the egregious attacks on Te Tiriti o Waitangi by the current New Zealand far-right coalition Government, formed by the National Party, ACT, and New Zealand First. Since coming to power in 2023, the coalition government has passed, or sought to pass, a suite of laws that directly attack Māori rights to their land, language, culture and healthcare, as well as Te Tiriti o Waitangi itself.
Te Tiriti o Waitangi affirms the independence and rights of Māori to their lands, waters, and all that is held sacred, yet the history of Aotearoa since 1840 has been marked by repeated failures by the Crown to honor these founding promises. One hundred and eighty-six years ago, on February 6, 1840, Te Tiriti o Waitangi was signed between approximately 500 Māori rangatira and the British Crown, and became New Zealand's founding document.
While the treaty was seen as a measure to resolve differences by establishing a system for the small, semi-permanent British settler population to govern themselves, the English language version of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, known as The Treaty of Waitangi, featured significant and consequential differences. The te reo Māori version—Te Tiriti o Waitangi—guarantees rangatiratanga to Māori, affirming their independence and absolute authority, while the English language version was an attempt to usurp Māori sovereignty. The te reo Māori text also uses the term kāwanatanga to describe a form of limited governance for British settlers over themselves that did not extinguish Māori absolute authority.
In the decades following the signing of Te Tiriti, the Crown repeatedly breached Te Tiriti o Waitangi, waged genocidal war on Māori, and practiced ethnic cleansing through direct military assaults and legislative warfare. In this way, nearly 90 percent of Māori land was taken by the Crown.
For Māori, however, Te Tiriti is not the source of their rights, but a reaffirmation of rights that exist because they are tangata whenua, the people of the land. Their relationship to their whenua stretches back through the last millennium, during which time tikanga Māori operated, and continues to operate, as the first law of the land. While the current settler government is ramping up oppression of Māori through Crown law and violence of the state, ultimately their laws do not and can not diminish rangatiratanga derived through whakapapa Māori, tikanga Māori, and their connections to their lands and waterways.
As a Kanaka Maoli self-determination initiative in Hawaiʻi, with long-standing relationships with Māori through shared Pacific struggles and movements, and as a people facing similar harms to our lands, waters, and rights under US colonialism and imperialism, Ka Lāhui Hawaiʻi rejects any attempt to weaken Māori rangatiratanga under the guise of “good governance” or “equality.” We stand with our Māori ʻohana and call for the full and faithful honoring of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
