Oral tradition and memory uses: the case of the Waitangi Tribunal, New Zealand
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22456/1983-201X.5387Keywords:
Memory, Oral tradition, Uses of the past, National identity, New ZealandAbstract
Abstract: In 1840 the Treaty of Waitangi, between the British Crown and more than 500 Maori heads was signed in New Zealand, then a British colony. In its three articles, the document, written in English and translated into Maori by British missionaries, states that the Maori would cede the region’s sovereignty to Britain, having guaranteed their right over lands, forests and fisheries. In New Zealand’s history, however, the Treaty has not been honored and the Maori gradually lost their lands and were confined to remote and rugged regions. In the 1970s a set of factors led to Maori mobilizations, which culminated in the creation of the Waitangi Tribunal, in 1975. The tribunal receives claims concerning actions or omissions of the British Crown which consist in a breach of the 1840 Treaty. At the trial, the “oral evidences”, e.g., the oral tradition of the groups which claim for land or the right to an economic activity, have an important role. This paper intends to be an approach to the case of the Waitangi Tribunal, which allows us to establish relations between oral tradition, uses of the past and national identity.
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