Kā mihi ki kā mana whenua o te rohe nei.

We acknowledge the mana whenua of this area.

Below is a brief history and bibliography of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the land sales and claims that followed, up to 1998 when the Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act was passed into legislation, with a specific focus on Ōtepoti. Relevant publications available at Kohikohika Motuhake Heritage Collections have been listed. You’ll also find heaps of links to useful online resources.

Jump to:

Kāi Tahu
Te Tiriti o Waitangi
He Whakaputanga
Te Tiriti ki te Manuao Herara/ The Herald-Bunbury sheet
Land sales and Te Kerēme
Claims settlement

Kāi Tahu

Kāi Tahu is the largest iwi in Te Waipounamu and the main iwi of Ōtepoti. Kāi Tahu came to Te Waipounamu more than 800 years ago, following Kāti Mamoe and Waitaha, becoming the largest iwi through intermarriage, politics and warfare. The rūnaka situated in the Ōtepoti area are Kāti Huirapa Runaka ki Puketeraki and Te Rūnanga o Ōtākou

Below is a selection of texts that discuss Kāi Tahu identity, including before and after European contact.

Traditional lifeways of the Southern Māori

Lore and history of the South Island Māori (Online access here)

The people of the place : mahika kai

Te mamae me te aroha = The pain and the love : a history of Kai Tahu Whanui in Otago, 1844-1994.

Ko Tahu, ko au : Kāi Tahu tribal identity

Te poho kanikani o Huirapa = The dancing hall of Huirapa

Ngāi Tahu : a migration history : the Carrington text

Tāngata Ngāi Tahu = People of Ngāi Tahu

Te karaka : the Ngāi Tahu magazine

Online resources:

Homepage | Cultural Mapping Project

Kareao Home Page

Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu

Te Tiriti o Waitangi

Te Tiriti o Waitangi is a written agreement made in 1840 and signed by representatives of The Crown and over 500 Māori rangatira. It is widely thought of as being Aotearoa New Zealand’s founding document. Lieutenant-Governor William Hobson and his secretary James Stuart Freeman created the first draft of the Treaty of Waitangi in English. This was added to significantly by James Busby after Hobson fell ill. The document was then translated to reo Māori by missionary Henry Williams and his son Edward. This reo Māori version - Te Tiriti o Waitangi - was signed at Waitangi on the 6th of February, 1840. The English language draft was lost but another document was later written in English. Differences between the Māori and English texts still cause contention and challenges almost 200 years later.

To learn more about Te Tiriti o Waitangi in the nationwide context, Dunedin Public Libraries provides library members access to the Bridget Williams Books Treaty of Waitangi Collection via our website.We also have some excellent books on the subject, including:

Treaty of Waitangi : questions and answers

The story of a treaty = He Kōrero Tiriti

Introducing Te Tiriti o Waitangi

Understanding Te Tiriti : a handbook of basic facts about Te Tiriti o Waitangi

The Treaty of Waitangi: Te Tiriti o Waitangi

View a full list of publications about Te Tiriti o Waitangi on our catalogue here.

There are many online resources with information about Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Go to Archives New Zealand to view the original Tiriti o Waitangi documents

You can read the two texts of the treaty and a contemporary translation of the Māori text on the Waitangi Tribunal website.

More links:

Archives NZ - Treaty of Waitangi

National Library - Te Tiriti o Waitangi

Treaty Resource Centre – He Puna Mātauranga o Te Tiriti

Nzonscreen - Waitangi collection

Resources - Network Waitangi Otautahi

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He Whakaputanga

In order to put Te Tiriti o Waitangi in context, it is crucial to also know about He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni (known in English as the Declaration of Independence of the United Tribes of New Zealand) signed by 52 rangatira between 1835 and 1839. Archives New Zealand provides this description of the constitutional document:

Through He Whakaputanga, these 52 rangatira asserted that Aotearoa New Zealand was an independent Māori state, that power resided fully with Māori, and that foreigners would not be allowed to make laws.

Described by British Resident James Busby as the "Magna Carta of New Zealand Independence", He Whakaputanga was a bold and innovative declaration of Indigenous power. Officially recognised by the United Kingdom, it signalled the emergence of Māori authority on the world stage. It was also one of the earliest assertions of Māori identity beyond separate iwi and hapū.

Further information can be found on the Archives New Zealand site, and we also recommend this book He Whakaputanga = The declaration of independence 1835

Te Tiriti ki te Manuao Herara/ The Herald-Bunbury sheet

After the initial signing on February 6 1840, copies of Te Tiriti o Waitangi were sent around the country for rangatira to sign. Major Bunbury, in the H.M.S Herald, took a copy of te Tiriti o Waitangi (reo Māori text) to several locations in Te Waipounamu. This copy is known as Te Tiriti ki te Manuao Herara/ the Herald-Bunbury sheet. It was signed by Karetai and Korako at Ōtākou on the 13th of June 1840.

This pamphlet, created by Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, gives a brief overview of Te Tiriti ki te Manuao Herara/ The Herald-Bunbury sheet Te Tiriti ki te Manuao Herara : Herald-Bunbury sheet

View a short documentary in which Mike King travels around Te Waipounamu visiting the locations where Te Tiriti ki te Manuao Herara was signed LOST IN TRANSLATION. EPISODE 10

Te Tiriti ki te Manuao Herara | Herald-Bunbury sheet | Flickr

Land sales and Te Kerēme

Following the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, there was a flood of European immigration and land sales throughout the country. In 1844, The New Zealand Company, represented by Colonel William Wakefield, purchased more than 162,000 Hectares of land known as the Otākou Block/ Otago Block to establish the “New Edinburgh” site (Dunedin/ Ōtepoti today.) The sale agreement was signed on the 31st of July, led by rangatira Tuhawaiki, Taiaroa and Karetai at Koputai.

Taken from Scheme of the colony of the Free Church of Scotland at Otago in New Zealand p. 39

We hold a facsimile of documents related to the Otākou Block purchase, which includes correspondence from William Wakefield Documents relating to the purchase of the Otago district for the site of the Scotch settlement in New Zealand : Governor Fitzroy to Mr. Symonds

Between 1844 and 1864, Kāi Tahu went on to sign land sale contracts with The Crown amounting to approximately 80% of Te Waipounamu. Promises by The Crown to set aside “tenths”of all land sold as reserves for Kāi Tahu, ensure access to mahika kai (food gathering) areas, and build schools and hospitals were not honoured. Kāi Tahu sought redress for these injustices for almost 150 years through petitions, protest, and commissions of enquiry. This work came to be known as Te Kerēme - the Ngāi Tahu land claim. In 1986 the Ngāi Tahu Māori Trust Board lodged the Ngāi Tahu Claim with the Waitangi Tribunal.

On 22 October 1849, the first formal statement of Ngāi Tahu grievances against the Crown regarding the South Island land purchases was made by the Ngāi Tahu rangatira, Matiaha Tiramōrehu of Moeraki. His letter can be read inA compendium of official documents relative to native affairs in the South Island (online access here)

https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22327653

Another important early figure in Te Kerēme is HK Taiaroa (Hori Kerei Taiaroa). HK Taiaroa was the son of Te Mātenga Taiaroa, an important chief at Ōtākou who was one of the signatories to the land sale agreement in 1844. HK Taiaroa represented his people as a Māori Member of Parliament from 1871 and worked tirelessly to fulfill his father’s wish that the promises made when signing land sale agreements would be carried out. A biography of HK Taiaroa can be found in Tāngata Ngāi Tahu = People of Ngāi Tahu and there is an online biography here.

Hori Kerei Taiaroa | Items | National Library of New Zealand | National Library of New Zealand

Historian Harry Evison wrote extensively about land sales throughout the Kāi Tahu takiwā, including at Ōtākou, and the subsequent Kāi Tahu land claim. A full list of titles that we hold written by Harry Evison can be found here

One of Evison’s early publications, The Treaty of Waitangi & the Ngai Tahu claim : a summary, includes chapters by Dunedin-born historian Ann Parsonson about the Otago tenths, and the Princes Street reserve - an area of land on the shoreline at Princes Street (before land reclamation) that was promised to Māori then rescinded.

Local historian Bill Dacker also wrote about Te Kerēme in Te mamae me te aroha = The pain and the love : a history of Kai Tahu Whanui in Otago, 1844-1994.

Claims settlement

The Ngāi Tahu Claim, lodged with the Waitangi Tribunal in 1986, included 73 grievances under nine general headings, which related to the eight large sales of Kāi Tahu land, and mahika kai. These were referred to as the Nine Tall Trees of Ngāi Tahu and related not only to land but also fisheries, the loss of language, and lack of recognition of Māori cultural values. Following three years of hearings and nine years of negotiations directly with The Crown, the Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act was finally passed in 1998

For a thorough account of a treaty settlement negotiations see A long time coming : the story of Ngāi Tahu's treaty settlement negotiations with the Crown

Heritage Collections holds several primary resources related to the Ngāi Tahu claims settlement, including:

The Ngai Tahu report, 1991 (Wai 27)

Parties Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu and Her Majesty the Queen in right of New Zealand : deed of settlement

Crown settlement offer : consultation document from the Ngāi Tahu Negotiating Group : five generations of Ngāi Tahu men and women have grown old in the shadow of our tall trees

Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act can be viewed at Heritage Collections and is also available online

Information from Ngaī Tahu about the settlement can be accessed online here and there’s also a video series available to view.

Dunedin Public Libraries | Kā Kete Wānaka o Ōtepoti

A Piece of the Moon

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