The nine original pages of Te Tiriti o Waitangi will be on display to the public at the National Library in Wellington on Waitangi Day.
The display is a part of He Tohu, a joint exhibition by Archives New Zealand and the National Library.
National Library spokesperson Alison McIntyre describes the activities as “a real family day for all ages, with lots of activities on offer to learn more about Waitangi Day. It’s a day to reflect and learn about Te Tiriti, its meaning and how it has shaped us as a nation in many different ways.”
The Treaty will be displayed in state-of-the-art display cases in a specially built room named the Waka Huia, alongside two other historical documents He Whakaputanga, the 1835 Declaration of Independence, and the 1893 Women’s Suffrage Petition.
Two of the nine pages of Te Tiriti are on parchment (stretched animal skin) and the other seven are on paper. Eight of them are written in te reo Māori and one is in English. The cases they are in allow greater visual access and the climate conditions in the cases ensure the documents’ long-term preservation.
Also available to the public at the National Library is the E Oho! Waitangi Series teaching education related to Te Tiriti and te ao Māori including maramataka Māori, Māori data sovereignty, the Māori language petition, the Te Kooti trail, kōhanga reo and many more.
Talks will be held throughout Waitangi Day at the National Library in te reo Māori, te reo Pākeha and bilingual. The He Tohu exhibition will be free.