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 lawless traders and by rumours of French designs.

He Whakaputanga — Declaration of Independence

He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni

Rangatira of the Confederation of United Tribes declared New Zealand an independent state, with all sovereign power residing in the assembled chiefs.

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 over the veto of the senior rangatira, Wiremu Kīngi Te Rangitāke.

New Zealand Settlements Act — raupatu

Te raupatu whenua

The Crown took roughly 1.2 million hectares from iwi deemed to be in rebellion — including from communities that had never fought.

The Native Land Court is established

The court converted customary communal title into individual freehold — the mechanism by which most remaining Māori land was lost, without a shot fired.

The invasion of Parihaka

Te pāhuatanga o Parihaka

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

The Māori land march

Te Rōpū o te Matakite

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, which made it nearly useless for a decade.

The Bastion Point occupation

Takaparawhau

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

Eva Rickard and the Raglan golf course

Land taken from Tainui Awhiro 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 single amendment that made Treaty settlements possible: the Tribunal could now investigate Crown breaches all the way back to 1840.

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 never been sold. 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 claim first lodged in 1849 was finally settled: $170 million, an apology, and the return of Aoraki/Mount Cook, over land covering most of the South Island.