Resisting the Myth of Hobson’s Pledge and Crown Benevolence: Repairing the Record as Part of Weaving Together a Legal Future

Abstract

On the 6 February 1840 at the first signings of the Tiriti o Waitangi between Māori and the British Crown, the pledge ‘he iwi tahi tātou’ ‘together we are a nation’ was attributed to Crown representative Lieutenant Governor William Hobson. That was allegedly corrected at the time by prominent chief Hone Heke, who noted that a more appropriate phrasing was ‘he iwi kotahi tātou’ – or ‘together we are one nation’, which implies a very different bargain underpinned by pluralism. Whether this happened or not, it conveniently established a mythology of Crown/Māori relations that has permeated our national consciousness and legal orderings, with Hobson’s pledge held up as a unifying mantra for people from ‘two worlds with one law’. That mythology embedded the assumption of Crown benevolence toward Māori – that the colonisers brought law, order and civilisation where there had been none.

This mythology denies the existence of Māori law and Māori agency in creating legal relationships with others, including early settlers. Ngāpuhi chief Patuone’s engagement in trade in the fledgling colony of New South Wales illustrates Māori concepts and practices of sovereignty and laws of obligations. It is also a deliberate mis-remembering of Māori resistance and the consistent assertion of Māori voice in both engaging with and rejecting settler law.

Contemporary politics and jurisprudence wrestle with understanding our history as part of the weaving together of our legal future in Aotearoa. Reckoning with that past requires repairing the record, and recognising the existence and operation of Māori law. A number of recent developments are providing hope in this space – including decolonisation and indigenisation of legal education.