Distinguished historian Claudia Orange says recent Treaty settlements form a revolutionary pathway towards true partnership in Aotearoa. In an extract from the up-to-date edition of her award-winning book
The Treaty of Waitangi / Te Tiriti o Waitangi: An Illustrated History, she vividly describes the gathering and debate at Waitangi on the day before rangatira began to sign the Treaty.
OPINION: Letters, reports and diaries left by officials and missionaries provide a good record of the events of 5 and 6 February. From early on the 5th, Māori groups began to arrive. The waters of the Bay of Islands came alive with waka converging from all directions, each with thirty or more paddlers keeping time to the stroke. Settlers’ boats joined the stream, and the ships anchored offshore had all their flags flying.
Why te Tiriti should place a limit on the supremacy of parliament
Commentary
Ahead of Waitangi Day, Jacinta Ruru and Jacobi Kohu-Morris imagine an alternative to New Zealand’s constitutional framework that gives Te Tiriti o Waitangi the mana it deserves and Māori a meaningful seat at the table.
In the early 1980s, fresh from law school, Sir Justice Joe Williams (Ngāti Pūkenga, Te Arawa) wrote ‘Maranga Ake Ai’ and recorded it with his band Aotearoa. It first aired in 1984 and caused a stir. It deeply offended many European New Zealanders. Lyrics included “Where’s my freedom from oppression? Cos that’s what my people need.”