Treaty & Crown–Māori relations

Northern chiefs petition King William IV

Thirteen rangatira asked the King to be a friend and guardian of these islands, worried by runaway sailors and other troublesome Europeans, and by rumours of French designs.

He Whakaputanga — Declaration of Independence

He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni

Rangatira of the United Tribes declared New Zealand an independent state, with sovereignty and authority over the land resting with the rangatira.

William Hobson is sent to negotiate a treaty

The Colonial Office instructed Hobson to obtain the free and intelligent consent of Māori to British sovereignty — the brief that produced Te Tiriti six months later.

Te Tiriti o Waitangi is signed

Te Tiriti o Waitangi

Around 540 rangatira signed Te Tiriti at Waitangi and at more than 50 meetings around the country. The English and te reo Māori texts do not say the same thing, and never have.

The Waitara purchase is disputed

Governor Gore Browne accepted a junior chief’s offer to sell land at Waitara against the opposition of the senior rangatira living on it, Wiremu Kīngi Te Rangitāke.

New Zealand Settlements Act — raupatu

Te raupatu whenua

The Crown confiscated land from iwi it deemed to be in rebellion (Te Ara estimates 1–1.3 million hectares), including land of neutral tribes and of some that had fought on its side.

The Native Land Court is established

The court converted customary communal title into individual titles that could be sold, and became the main means by which most remaining Māori land passed out of Māori ownership.

The invasion of Parihaka

Te pāhuatanga o Parihaka

Some 1,600 troops marched on a village that met them with singing children and offered bread. Te Whiti and Tohu were arrested, much of the village destroyed, and no one resisted.

The Māori land march

Te Rōpū Matakite o Aotearoa

Whina Cooper, aged 79, led a month-long hīkoi from Te Hāpua in the far north to Parliament under the slogan ‘not one more acre’.

Treaty of Waitangi Act — the Waitangi Tribunal

A permanent commission of inquiry was created to hear Treaty claims — but only for breaches after 1975. Claims were rare until 1985.

The Bastion Point occupation

Takaparawhau

Ngāti Whātua occupied their remaining ancestral land for 506 days against a government subdivision. Police and army removed them, and 222 people were arrested.

Eva Rickard and the Raglan golf course

Land taken from Tainui Āwhiro for a wartime airfield had become a golf course. Eva Rickard led an occupation of the fairway and was arrested on it.

Waitangi Tribunal jurisdiction backdated to 1840

The Tribunal could now investigate Crown breaches all the way back to 1840, and the number of claims rose hugely.

Te reo Māori becomes an official language

Te Ture mō Te Reo Māori

Te reo Māori gained official status and the right to be spoken in court, fifteen years after the language petition and following a Waitangi Tribunal finding that it was a taonga.

The Sealord fisheries settlement

The Crown funded a Māori half-share in Sealord and allocated quota, settling commercial fisheries claims nationally in one deal.

The Pākaitore occupation

Pākaitore

Whanganui iwi occupied Moutoa Gardens for 79 days, claiming the site had been set aside from the original land purchase. The town divided sharply, and it ended peacefully.

The Waikato-Tainui raupatu settlement

The Crown apologised for the invasion of the Waikato and the confiscations that followed, and returned $170 million in land and cash.

The Ngāi Tahu settlement

A grievance first formally stated in 1849 was finally settled: $170 million, an apology, and Aoraki/Mount Cook, vested in the iwi and gifted back to the nation, over land covering most of the South Island.