December 13, 2023
Māori only valid tiriti say Te Papa protesters
A member of the group which painted over a display of the English text of the Treaty of Waitangi at Te Papa Tongarewa says it improved the exhibition.
Cally O’Neill says Te Waka Hourua has engaged with the national museum for more than two years about the display, which it says gives a distorted understanding of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
She says Te Papa presents both texts as equal, but it’s the Māori version that matters because that’s the one signed by Māori.
“There is a huge amount of people that are unaware these two documents are different and that’s not because people are dumb. It’s because there has been a huge coordinated campaign to keep New Zealanders from this information in order to uphold the current power structures and that’s just not OK after all the efforts of te ao Māori to elevate te tiriti,” Ms O’Neill says.
She says the Waitangi Tribunal’s first Te Paparahi o Te Raki Report in 2014 made it clear Māori did not cede their sovereignty.