About

We’re a group from your local neigborhood inspired by the vision of Te Tiriti o Waitangi for all who call Kāpiti home.

Embracing Te Tiriti Kāpiti is a community group who supports actions for rangatiratanga, kotahitanga and justice on the Kāpiti Coast. We organise, coordinate & support our communities to take action for a beautiful Te Tiriti-based future for us all. 

“It’s we-go, not ego.” 
. 

Morvin Te Anatipa Simon
(Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi, Ngāti Apa, Ngāti Tūwharetoa)

We acknowledge mana whenua of these lands –  Te Ātiawa ki Whakarongotai, Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga, Ngāti Haumia and Ngāti Toa Rangatira. We seek to serve under the tikanga of the Raukura, peace, honour and goodwill.  We acknowledge the call from mana whenua and Parihaka for peace and respect in this rohe.

We aspire to live into the relationship that Te Tiriti o Waitangi promises us all. We are tangata tiriti led and  acknowledge that we are learning what this means as we continue to grow.

Te Tiriti o Waitangi is a gift. A generous gift because it gave us all a way to call this place home. It is a beautiful promise – an audacious dream for us to belong and live peacefully with each other, valued for who we are.

“The Treaty to me has never been about Treaty rights,
it’s always been about the
right-ness that comes from people accepting their obligations
to each other.”

Moana Jackson, constitutional lawyer,  legal philosopher
(Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Porou, Rongomaiwahine)

For a shared, thriving future,  as tangata whenua and tangata tiriti,  we are required to recognise that sovereignty was not ceded in Te Tiriti o Waitangi.  We can realise the vision of Te Tiriti by upholding the ongoing authority of tangata whenua and advocating for tino rangatiratanga. Through honouring this, we restore, heal and thrive together. 

“In February 1840 the rangatira who signed te Tiriti…did not cede their sovereignty. Rather, they agreed to a relationship in which they and the Governor were to be equal while having different roles and different spheres of influence.” 

Waitangi Tribunal, 2014

We connect and collaborate across the motu, particularly with rōpu who align with our kaupapa.

Please join us as we grow the number of tangata tiriti committed to Te Tiriti o Waitangi on the Kāpiti Coast!

“…if Pākehā put their energies into educating their own
and critiquing the systems and attitudes that need to
change, that… makes rather than takes space
for Māori, allowing [Māori] to focus on the vital work of
restoring te ao Māori.”

From ‘Becoming Tangata Tiriti’ by Avrill Bell