(This article is the welcome-note from the Shining Lights Trust’s Waitangi update, sent to NZ pastors February 2025)

Our Treaty has God’s fingerprints all over it!
God honours those who honour him.

We believe God smiles at our nation’s integrity and humility in recognising the Treaty of Waitangi through the 1975 Act and its 1985 amendments, which empowered the Tribunal to investigate historical claims.

But where did these remarkable CULTURAL concepts of integrity and justice come from?  

There is an important story to tell and celebrate with your church regarding Waitangi Day.

The Treaty has God’s fingerprints all over it

• The Treaty’s bicultural foundation, emphasising equality and protection, was shaped by Christ’s teachings. Jesus’ values had shaped culture. To note it, the DNA of our Treaty stands in contrast to the spirit of discrimination and domination common to practically all people groups prior to Christ’s influence.
• Our cultural understanding of justice, which led to the Treaty’s recognition in 1975 and 1985, stems from Christ’s influence.. The Ten Commandments were made the basis of our systems of law and justice via King Alfred the Great in AD 890. This created a culture in which the Government was under the same moral rules as the citizens. The commands provided a rational basis for affirming the value and rights of every individual. Christianity created the context for all of this history!
• If we consider even our freedom to discuss the treaty today – our limitation of Government powers, as also these freedoms of speech, only exist like they do because of Christ in our history. The powerful have otherwise silenced the ‘weak’ in history – and this pattern has been true of basically all cultures.
• Regarding the ideas found within our Treaty – these were first penned by James Stephens Jnr – a believing Christian and nephew of William Wilberforce. He could perceive the injustice of colonisation.
• These notes then went through the hands of Lord Normanby in the Colonial office – who was also a devoutly believing Christian of the same ‘Clapham Sect’ ilk.
• He passed them to Hobson with instructions to “stop this disaster [of colonisation], but if not possible to mitigate [soften] it.”  Hobson was known for being uncompromising and tough – which was the kind of person needed for this very difficult mission – which was also located on the literal other side of the globe!
• There was then trust from Māori on the ground here in New Zealand wherever there were Christian missionaries, because the missionaries had earned it. That is a story in itself!
• Māori were, in those times, discovering Christ for themselves – having heard from the missionaries the story of a loving God who had made himself known through a Middle-Eastern Jew. At that time Māori were in the process of embracing and spreading this message throughout the entire nation – and at their own hands, ahead of missionaries. The ways of peace were replacing those of war nationwide. It was a time of tremendous change – because of the gospel!

 

If this is a story at all – it is a Christian story!

 

Application

For those involved in local church leadership, what if you were to communicate the above 8 points to your congregation – for each is the testimony of Christ in our history (Revelation 12:11)!

Those who tell the history write the future.
Let’s know and tell our story!

DAVE MANN. Dave is a networker and creative communicator with a vision to see an understanding of the Christian faith continuing and also being valued in the public square in Aotearoa-New Zealand. He has innovated numerous conversational resources for churches, and has coordinated various national nationwide multimedia Easter efforts purposed to open up conversations between church and non-church people about the Christian faith and its significance to our nation’s history and values. Dave is the Producer of the ‘Chronicles of Paki’ illustrated NZ history series created for educational purposes, and the author of various other books and booklets including “Because we care”, “That Leaders might last” and “The Elephant in the Room”. Married to Heather, they have four boys and reside in Tauranga, New Zealand.