Treaty of Waitangi

In the late 1830s, increasing British migration and plans for settlement led the British Government to consider establishing government in New Zealand. It instructed Captain William Hobson to negotiate with Māori, with the Crown's stated aim of obtaining Māori consent before establishing government. A draft in English was translated into te reo Māori by missionary Henry Williams and his son Edward shortly before the agreement was presented to rangatira (chiefs).

The first signing took place at Waitangi in the Bay of Islands on 6 February 1840. The Waitangi Tribunal records that Hobson and between 43 and 46 Māori rangatira signed there. Copies were subsequently taken to other locations. By the end of 1840, more than 500 Māori had signed; the Tribunal notes that 13 of those signatories were women. Signatures were placed on different sheets, and most were on Māori-language texts.

The agreement has Māori and English texts, but the Māori version is not an exact translation of the English one. Their wording has produced continuing debate about what the parties understood and agreed to. In the English first article, rangatira ceded sovereignty to the Crown; the Māori text used te kawanatanga, commonly rendered as government or governance. In the second article, the English text guaranteed Māori the undisturbed possession of their lands and other property and gave the Crown an exclusive right to purchase land. The Māori text guaranteed tino rangatiratanga over lands, villages and taonga, and described a Crown right to purchase land if Māori chose to sell it.

The third article promised Māori the Crown's protection and the rights of British subjects. The differences between the texts, together with the circumstances and discussions surrounding the signing, have shaped Māori and Crown interpretations of authority, land and the agreement's obligations. The historical record includes differing scholarly and political interpretations; the wording should not be reduced to a claim that every signer understood it in the same way.

Te Tiriti is widely regarded in New Zealand as a founding document and remains central to relationships between Māori and the Crown. Its significance is not limited to the original signing: the Waitangi Tribunal, a standing commission of inquiry, considers claims about whether Crown actions or omissions are inconsistent with Treaty principles. The Tribunal assesses which principles apply in the circumstances of each claim; it does not apply one single, fixed set of principles to every inquiry. Its reports and the agreement's two texts are part of ongoing historical and legal discussion.