Maori TV: The Untold Story Of The Treaty

E-Pānui 250: Monday February 9 2009
The Untold Story Of The Treaty Of Waitangi - On Māori Television

Comedian Mike King might be most famous for being funny, but his latest series reveals there’s a lot more to him than playing for laughs.

LOST IN TRANSLATION – on Māori Television on Sundays at 8.30 PM - sees King retrace the journey taken by the Treaty of Waitangi, back in 1840, to find the real story of what happened at the founding of our nation.

He finds the descendants of those who signed, those who didn’t, and people whose forebears were the Treaty carriers - from missionaries to military men and traders.

Nine sheets of the document that founded our nation were taken around Aotearoa to gather up signatures, following the signings on that first Waitangi Day on February 6.

This show investigates those journeys, as follows:

Sunday February 15 – WAITANGI GROUNDS AND BAY OF ISLANDS
What were the events leading up to the Treaty, and why did the British see a need for it in the first place? Also, Hone Harawira talks about his tupuna Tamati Waka Nene, and growing up to find out he was named after a man who was in favour of signing the Treaty.

Sunday February 22 – MANGUNGU / WAIMA VALLEY / HOREKE / KAITAIA / RUAPEKAPEKA PA
King’s tupuna – Mohi Tawhai – was a well-known Hokianga chief who signed the Treaty. The presenter makes a personal stop at Waima Valley to learn more about the role his ancestor played in the Treaty story. Also in this episode, the treaty process is thrown into chaos when the man in charge, Captain William Hobson suffers a stroke.

Sunday March 1 - AWHITU PENINSULA, AUCKLAND AND KAWHIA
It’s called the Manukau-Kawhia Sheet, because it was signed in these places, but there is a question mark over exactly where on the Manukau Harbour these signings occurred. King tries to get to the bottom of this mystery and explores the possibilities. From the Mission Station at Orua Bay, King takes a water taxi to the place Ngāti Whātua believe their ancestors signed. This episode looks closely at a prominent Catholic bishop of the time – Pompallier – an influential man some believe may have discouraged some chiefs from signing.

King also goes to Kawhia to meet local historian, Frank Thorne, a descendant of signatory, Te Matenga.

Sunday March 8 – ROTORUA / TAUPO / OPOTIKI / WHAKATANE / TANEATUA
Why are two large Bay of Plenty tribes missing from our nation’s founding document? This episode investigates the travels of two separate sheets with quite different outcomes. One went inland to Taupo and Rotorua, but what happened when it was presented to Te Arawa and Ngāti Tūwharetoa? The case of the vanishing sheet. The other sheet goes off with a coastal trader called James Fedarb, whose descendants are interviewed. Later, King saddles up and heads into Tūhoe, to find out from Tamati Kruger why they didn’t sign.

Sunday March 15 – TAURANGA / MATAKANA ISLAND / COROMANDEL / AUCKLAND
As well as tensions between Māori and Pākehā, and between tribes, another rivalry was going strong at the time of the Treaty signing – between Protestant and Catholic missionaries.

King explores this, and in the process finds himself on the trail of another mystery, as he goes in search of another sheet that never returned to Crown hands. This one was one of the flashest of the lot – beautifully ornate, with wax seals – and improbably, he does find it …

Sunday March 22 – GISBORNE / MANUTUKE / TOLAGA BAY / RANGITUKIA
How did Christianity spread on the East Coast, and what did it have to do with the Treaty? This is the story of one missionary who carried the sheet in that area – William Williams – and a freed slave called Piripi Taumata-a-Kura. Many years before the Treaty arrived in Gisborne a group of Ngāti Porou had been taken as Ngāpuhi slaves. Williams returns with one, releases him, and in the process creates a warmer reception for the Treaty.

Sunday March 29 – PORT WAIKATO / WELLINGTON / WAIKATO
Two sheets travelled together to Port Waikato and on to the Manukau Harbour. One was the only one of the nine sheets to be written in English – and the official version of our founding document. In the end, 39 signatures were on the English, and 5 were on the Māori sheet. So why did Māori put their names to this one English sheet where the terms spelled out in English are so different to those written in Māori?

This show also looks at story of the first Māori king, Te Wherowhero, and why he didn’t sign.

Sunday April 5 – PAIHIA / WELLINGTON / PETONE / KAPITI ISLAND / OTAKI
While William Williams worked on the East Coast, his brother Henry, who had translated the Treaty at Waitangi from English into Māori, was busy elsewhere.

King interviews Henry’s great-great granddaughter, Caroline Fitzgerald. King also meets two descendants of two women who signed, Kahe Te Rau-O-Te-Rangi and her cousin Rangi Topeora.

Also in this show, the story of Te Rauparaha and his friendship with missionary Octavius Hadfield, through the words and stories of that missionary’s descendant – Paraparaumu man, Dave Hadfield.

Sunday April 12 – AKAROA / STEWART ISLAND / RUAPUKE ISLAND / OTAGO / MARLBOROUGH SOUNDS
The sheer distance travelled is this episode is a feat in itself – a fair indication of what the Treaty carrier of the day had to do. British officer Major Thomas Bunbury was a trained military man and a hero of the wars against Napoleon before he came to New Zealand. He sets off on his mission to sign up the South Island, but returns with just 27 signatures.

For an issue that generates so much heated debate and creates so much tension, it is amazing how little most people know about this dramatic and important chapter in our shared history. LOST IN TRANSLATION screens on Māori Television on Sundays at 8.30 PM.

ENDS

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