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Maranga Mai!
1436-1833: Aotearoa is still an independent Māori/iwi nation. Iwi are trading with Europe, Australia, and America
and providing supplies to settlers; mission schools are established; new diseases take hold
1436 to 1454
The Doctrine of Discovery bestows
on Europeans the right to seek
and capture others and enslave
them and take all non-white, nonChristian lands and resources.
Europeans believed that they were
superior over all who are nonwhite and non-Christian (Ngata, T.
2019)
Contact
1769: James Cook arrives in
Aotearoa. Voyages ,like Cook’s,
transplant “imperial domination,
white supremacy and racism in its
many forms” (Moewaka Barnes
and McCreanor, 2019, p. 20). Māori
were considered less-than-human,
and their lands and resources
freely open for colonial exploitation
(Aikman, 2019; Mills, 2011; Wolfe,
2016, 2011, 2006).
By the late 1830s, Māori had
experienced decades of trading
with foreign countries.
Justice
1814: Britain appoints Thomas
Kendall as Resident Magistrate to
control unruly settlers (Barrington
and Beaglehole 1974).
Education
1816: First Mission School opened
by Thomas Kendall (the Resident
Magistrate of 1814) ‘to “civilise”
and “deculturate” Māori, through
conversion to Christianity (ACORD,
1986, p. 1). Missionaries learn te
reo Māori, translate the Bible
into Māori, and teach in Māori
(Barrington and Beaglehole 1974).
Health
Pre-contact Māori population is
100,000. (Lange 1999).
Māori life expectancy was longer
than 18th-century Europeans
(Pool, I. 2011 in Reid, J. et al, 2017:
33). Māori were a robust, healthy
people and had no experience of
epidemics or viral diseases. The
pre-contact Māori population was
growing on average by 0.5% per
annum (Pool cited in Lange 1999:7).
1820: new diseases - influenza and
measles epidemics sweep through
kāinga (Lange, 1999).
Land
1817: Kendall admits he cannot
control European settlers.
(Hill 1986: 37).
1818: Settlers start the musket wars
which last 15 years. They end in
1833 when iwi acquire muskets.
Rangatira allow settlers to stay for
trading purposes. (Belich 1986).
1835-1840: He Whakaputanga,Te Tiriti o Waitangi, broken agreements, Crown decisions and law over Māori
land, Māori literacy rates exceed those of children in England
Rangatiratanga
1835: He Whakaputanga –
Declaration of Independence
is signed – asserting the mana,
rangatiratanga, and independence
of the Rangatira who signed it,
supported by a commitment to
unify in the face of foreign threat,
and to ensure that no foreign law
or government could be imposed
on them. (Waitangi Tribunal: 2014: 202).
February 1840: Te Tiriti o Waitangi
is drafted and signed and the
rangatiratanga of iwi Māori over
their lands and people is again
affirmed. Tauiwi, through the
queen, are allowed to govern
themselves (Kāwanatanga). Iwi
do not cede sovereignty to the
Crown Waitangi Tribunal (2014).
The Crown has no intention of
honouring Te Tiriti.
Land and Police
In 1839, Hobson stops private
land sales to speculators and
colonists and tells colonists that
Rangatira did not understand He
Whakaputanga. He Whakaputanga
is called ‘silly’ and a failed
experiment (Waitangi Tribunal:
2014: 340).