On the fourth floor of Te Papa Tongarewa, two large wooden panels hang opposite one another. The panels are part of the museum’s Te Tiriti o Waitangi: Ngā tohu kotahitanga / Treaty of Waitangi: Signs of a Nation exhibition, recording, on one side, Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the document signed on 6 February 1840 and eventually by more than 500 rangatira, and on the other, a text in English drafted by Governor William Hobson, signed by thirty-six rangatira at Waikato Heads and Manukau. The exhibition has been in place since 1998 when the museum opened at its current premises and, since Monday 11 December 2023, it has also been the object of national scrutiny, after activist group Te Waka Hourua entered the museum tooled with angle grinders, spray paint and climbing rope, and proceeded to alter the panel featuring the English text. Article the Third, the section of the text which affirmed originally that “Her Majesty the Queen of England extends to the Natives of New Zealand Her royal protection and imparts to them all the Rights and Privileges of British Subjects,” blacked and scratched out, now reads simply, “ration the Queen’s veges.”

Some were quick to call the actions defacement or vandalism, and therefore criminal, with members of the activist group facing conviction. Others staked it out as agitprop. “This action has encouraged a nationwide conversation about Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the way the English draft is used to distort our history,” Te Waka Hourua said in a statement, released on 18 December. The group targeted the exhibit, arguing that it misleadingly implies that the English text is a direct translation of the te reo document, hanging the two panels like mirror images, with inadequate information concerning their discrepancies—namely, that the English text implies Māori ceded sovereignty by signing te Tiriti. 

This was not their first attempt to raise the issue with Te Papa’s staff, nor is it the first time that the exhibit has been the object of complaint. Included in an Official Information Act (OIA) Request raised in 2021—a heavily redacted document, strikingly evocative of the protest action—are records of other formal objections to the pairing of Te Tiriti and the English text, dating back to 2006. Also included is the correspondence between Te Papa, the Office of Race Relations and a complainant from 1998, settling the charge that an element of the display titled ‘Government’ was “culturally insensitive, subjective, and historically inaccurate,” to the end that, the claimant writes, “the exhibit will encourage anti-white feelings and resentment on the part of Maoris [sic].” Te Papa defended the exhibition at the time, saying “Treaty issues are the subject of much controversy within this country and, as such, it is appropriate that the differences of opinion—many subjective views, if you will—are recognised and recorded.”

Last week, the official spokesperson for Te Papa again defended the museum’s explanation of the differences within accompanying information panels and affirmed that the institution “[respects] the right of people to express their views and to protest but we are disappointed that the group has damaged this museum display.” Damage or correction? It seems the country is very far from settling that question but, in the context of the coalition government’s stated intention to ‘clarify the Treaty principles’ (contrary to decades of jurisprudence that have done just that) within its present term, and the debate which has ensued, there is hardly a more fitting ‘Sign of the Nation’ and of the Times than Te Waka Hourua’s intervention. 

As of yet unsettled is the question of what will happen to the exhibition now. Te Papa is yet to announce their plans and is reportedly polling visitors for their opinion, and could not comment further at the time of this story’s publication. They could replace the English panel so that it reads as it was, restoring the historical record to the previous order. Or, they could leave up the redacted version, evidence of the ongoing contestation of these two documents and of Aotearoa’s history.