We often look to the Treaty of Waitangi as the definitive turning point in New Zealand history. As the founding document and shared agreement between two peoples, many look at this early colonial era as a time of trade, survival and adapting to a new society. Pākehā immersed themselves in
RYAN ANDERSON/STUFF
Hinerangi Himiona and Hone Mihaka tell the story of their tupuna who was the first person executed by the Crown in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Nearly 180 years ago, at a central Auckland intersection, a teenager was hanged before hundreds of settlers, changing the course of history. The execution still haunts the boy’s whanaunga, a legacy to the disproportionate treatment of Māori in the justice system today. Early one morning, a Māori teenager named Maketū woke to the sound of carpenters building the instrument of his death. For months, he had lived in a wretched, rat-infested jail cell on Queen St in central Auckland as he waited to stand trial. It was early in 1842, and the new colony’s justice system was literally being built; the finishing touches were being made to the new Supreme Court building next-door while Maketū awaited judgment.