Te Tiriti o Waitangi – te pukapuka whakaū i a Niu Tīreni
Ahakoa te ngaronga atu o ngā tau i hainatia ai, kei te ora tonu te Tiriti o Waitangi, kei te tohe tonutia, kei te wareware tonutia, kei te mahara tonutia. He take rānei e noho tahi ai tātou katoa, he take rānei hei wehewehe i a tātou? He kore kiko rānei, he papa rānei hei hanga kaupapa whakakotahi i a tātou? Ko te kaupapa o tēnei whakaaturanga, he kawe mai i ngā tikanga o Te Tiriti ki tēnei wā e noho nei tātou, he āta titiro ki ōna hua me ōna painga, mō ngā iwi katoa e noho nei i Aotearoa.
Māu anō e titiro ki te āhuatanga o tēnei whakaaturanga. Haere mai, e noho, titiro, whakaaro, whakarongo, nohopuku. E kai ō kanohi, whakarongo ki te hunga kua mene ki te pō. I te wāhi i raro i te papawaenga āta tirohia ngā kōrero kei ngā tuhituhi, āta whakarongo ki ngā kōrero a ētahi e pā ana ki te papānga o te Tiriti ki runga i a rātou.
I te wā nei e haere tonu ana ngā kōrero me ngā whakaaro mō te Tiriti, he nui ngā rerekētanga hei whakarongo mā tātou. Kei runga ake nei tētahi wāhi e iri ana ngā kōrero mō Pōringi e whakamārama ana te ara o te kerēme i raro i Te Tiriti. He nui ngā kōrero kei reira anō e iri ana hei titiro māu, hei whakaaro māu e pā ana ki te whakatakoto kerēme ki te Karauna me te whakatau i aua kerēme.
Ka mau tonu Te Tiriti ki ā tātou tirohanga whakamua mō Aotearoa. Ko te wero a Te Papa Tongarewa, nā Te Tiriti i whai mana a Niu Tīreni.
The glass replica of the Treaty
Te Papa's Treaty, a copy of the official 1840 version, stands eight metres high in the exhibition. It weighs three-quarters of a tonne. Thanks to modern technology, it has been enshrined in the beauty and permanence of glass.
This double-layered icon speaks to us across time. The deepest layer carries an enlargement of the original signed Māori version of the Treaty in the tattered form it has come down to us today. Therefore some signatures are missing. This is a reminder both of its years of obscurity and its capacity to somehow survive.
To supply the missing parts, the complete text is laid over the original document - so we can see exactly how the Treaty was when it was signed.