Activist and former MP Hone Harawira has acknowledged the death of Queen Elizabeth in the spirit of the Treaty of Waitangi.
“The Queen was the face of the Crown and the Treaty partner who signed it alongside our tīpuna. We are still Treaty partners. So I pay tribute to her in this age of the Treaty of Waitangi,” Harawira said.
“She was a notable leader of her time who spoke and acted as one.”
He remembers the Queen attending the 1990 sesquicentennial of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi but says it was more noteworthy for him because of other events, such as the first public showing of the Tino Rangatiratanga flag.
He also remembers Hinerau Te Pou throwing a t-shirt at the Queen and telling her, ‘Go home’, and the speech by the Bishop of Aotearoa Whakahuihui Vercoe, where he claimed Māori had been marginalised by the Crown since the signing of the Treaty. Vercoe told the Queen he wanted his "tino rangatiratanga to be the same as your tino rangatiratanga".
Harawira says if he had ever met Queen Elizabeth, he would have told her to honour the Treaty.
“I’ve met the King, her son Charles and told him the same thing. I gave him the Tino Rangatiratanga flag and said the Treaty must be honoured.”