Kōrero: Cultural go-betweens

The missionary Henry Williams helps chief Tāmati Wāka Nene to sign the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, in this 1938 painting produced to mark the centenary of the treaty. Missionaries such as Williams used their knowledge of the Māori language and the goodwill they had developed with Māori for political ends such as convincing them to sign the treaty. This caused ill-feeling among settlers, who felt that the missionaries unfairly favoured Māori, and among those Māori who later thought that their trust had been misplaced.