What Does the Treaty Say?
There is a great deal of controversy about what the Treaty of Waitangi means, or what people think it should mean, today. Understanding what it actually says and how it was understood in 1840 will help you to clarify your own views.
This module comprises the following sections. While we recommend you work through them linearly, if you’re returning, or specifically interested in a particular issue, you can jump to the relevant section by clicking on the headings below. If you haven’t looked at the previous module recently it would be useful to do so before starting this one because it provides important context.
Leaders on both sides of the Treaty relationship had been developing policy for decades which directly affected the wording of Articles 1, 2 and 3 of the Treaty and less directly the fourth. The two key terms in the Treaty come from a Māori policy document.
This section of the module summarises key influences on British colonial policy and how they were reflected in the Treaty.
This section provides some clarification about the wording of each Treaty Article.
In this last section, we consider the different perspectives and understandings of the Treaty at the time it was signed.
Key Terms
Here are key terms and concepts used in this module. If you are unfamiliar with any of these, we recommend you click on the links to review the terms and how they relate to the material in this course (some are used in other contexts, such as hapu, which also means pregnant, but here is used to in the context of the Māori social structures.
| Term 1 | Term 2 | Term 3 | etc | ||||