Te Tiriti ki Te Tairāwhiti

When Henry Williams arrived here from the Bay of Islands on 8th April 1840, he had with him two handwritten copies of the treaty, both in te reo. Henry took one of these on to the Wellington region, the other was left here in Tūranga with his brother William.

On the 5th of May, William wrote in his journal that following conversations about the treaty, there was approval of the tenor of it. Three days later he reported to Willoughby Shortland that it had been signed by the leading men in this Bay….and I have no doubt but that all the rest will follow their example.

William took the treaty with him when he travelled up the coast while undertaking his work for the Church Missionary Society. Over the course of the next month, another 17 chiefs signed the East Coast sheet : 3 at Ūawa, 6 at Whakawhtirā, 3 at Rangitukia, and finally, as he returned back down the coast, another 4 at Tokomaru Bay.

This exhibition is a brief look at the journey taken by the East Coast sheet of the treaty, from Manutuke in the south to Rangitukia in the north.