Story: Te Tiriti o Waitangi – the Treaty of Waitangi

This poster from the late 1970s expresses the frustration and impatience of the Māori land-rights movement in that period. The Waitangi Tribunal had been formed in 1975 to investigate Māori claims against the Crown, but in the first years after its formation it was unable to address long-standing Māori grievances. Many younger radicals argued that te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi) was a fraudulent document and that Māori had never surrendered their sovereignty to the Crown.