Monday 13th May, 2013

We checked out of our motel in Paihia and drove a little way down the road to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds. It was on this site that the Treaty of Waitangi (Tiriti o Waitangi) was signed between the Maori iwi (tribes) of the North Island and Queen Victoria’s representatives. Although the treaty is seen to be the founding document for New Zealand and 6th February 1840 to be the nation’s birthday it is not a straightforward chapter of history.

The Treaty

This was the first time we encountered some of the specifics of how New Zealand came to be part of the British Empire. Whilst I had studied some aspects of the Empire’s rise and decline what happened in these two islands on the other side of the world had never featured. It’s impossible to do justice to the complexity and the tensions without making this blog post far too long but it came out of a desire in both Britain, and New Zealand from both Maori and pakeha to establish some more formalised structure in relation to land ownership and security.   Continue reading The Waitangi Treaty Grounds →