{"id":611800,"date":"2026-09-25T22:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T22:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/611800\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T22:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T22:32:11","slug":"whenua-2-0-updated-map-new-histories-showing-maori-pakeha-land-deals-in-new-zealand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/611800\/","title":{"rendered":"Whenua 2.0: Updated map, new histories showing M\u0101ori-P\u0101keha land deals in New Zealand"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Wherever you live in New Zealand, there\u2019s a story \u2013 but most of us have no idea what it is. Now we can find out. Two years after the Herald launched Whenua: Our land, our history<\/a>, data editor Chris Knox updates the map of Aotearoa with
\n official historical accounts and asks historian Rachel Buchanan what these Treaty settlement documents tell us about our national story.\n <\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve ever wondered about the history behind your home, town or suburb, you can now find it on a map covering most of New Zealand.<\/p>\n

The stories behind each place \u2013 searchable on our updated Whenua map below \u2013 come from more than 80 historical accounts agreed between the Government and iwi under Treaty of Waitangi settlements in the last 30 years.<\/p>\n

Between them, these historical records cover most of the country, except for a large portion of Northland, an area of Rangit\u012bkei and part of East Cape, where there are still no settlements. In other areas, not every iwi with a historical interest has settled, but you can still see the accounts from tribes that have reached agreements.<\/p>\n

To see a place\u2019s land history, click on a location on the map or enter a place name in the search bar. (The accounts are extracted from the original documents as close to verbatim as possible.)<\/p>\n

The stories on the map show how the Crown often purchased land for a pittance and ignored its legal obligations afterwards.<\/p>\n

For example, if you live in the central suburbs of Auckland, such as Mt Eden, Mt Albert or Pt Chevalier, you can see how the Crown bought \u2013 and rapidly resold \u2013 those 5260ha (13,000 acres) of land from Ng\u0101ti Wh\u0101tua \u014cr\u0101kei for \u00a3200, four horses, 30 blankets, 10 cloaks, one tent and a desk.<\/p>\n

Wellingtonians may be surprised to learn that prime land in the city was sold to prospective settlers in London by the New Zealand Company before it had even arrived in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

In the South Island, Ng\u0101i Tahu was protesting that the Crown wasn\u2019t keeping its side of the bargain from as early as the 1840s.<\/p>\n

And in Bay of Plenty, two men who led a military campaign that confiscated 991,148ha (245,000 acres) of land were appointed to rule on the legality of the seizure \u2013 they found it valid.<\/p>\n

A common theme is that the Crown failed to uphold its end of the deal. For instance, the 2428ha (6000-acre) Kohimarama block in Auckland was purchased for \u00a3100, a boat, livestock, clothing, tools and dry goods. Ng\u0101ti Paoa testified that they were promised land at Saint Georges Bay as part of the purchase. The land was never set aside.<\/p>\n

These accounts, agreed between individual iwi and the Government, have formed part of our official history since the treaty settlement process began in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

Yet they haven\u2019t filtered down into popular consciousness. In her account of Parihaka, Ko Taranaki Te Maunga, historian Rachel Buchanan wondered why.<\/p>\n

Explaining how the process works, she wrote: \u201cEmployees of the Crown work with iwi employees [actually, more likely iwi volunteers] to research and write deeds of settlement, including negotiated historical accounts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe accounts are peer-reviewed by independent eminent historians.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe deeds are signed and published on the Office of Treaty Settlements\u2019 website … and then what? … Do schools teach them? Do textbooks refer to them?\u201d<\/p>\n

Buchanan, who is a member of Te Pouhere K\u014drero M\u0101ori Historians Network, told the Herald the accounts were \u201cmost certainly worthy of a lot more attention and celebration\u201d as they corrected a one-sided view of New Zealand history. <\/p>\n

She described them as \u201cas negotiated histories that draw on iwi understandings that can remain obscured or ignored in mainstream accounts\u201d.<\/p>\n

The accounts were not the way history was normally recorded, firstly because they were legal documents, Buchanan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach paragraph is numbered like a bit of legislation, and you don\u2019t find that in any history book.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s because they are actually produced through argument or debate and then they\u2019re agreed upon.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the Taranaki and Parihaka agreements, she remembered \u201ca really intense debate\u201d over whether the word rape should be used \u2013 eventually it was.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is so unusual for history to be made in that way, but it reflects how things are done on the marae.\u201d<\/p>\n

The accounts range from the 69-line Waikato-Tainui account which begins with, \u201c1863-1864 the Crown engaged in a war against Maaori [sic] in the Waikato [sic], causing suffering to the people there\u201d, to more than 3000 lines for their Ng\u0101ti Maniapoto neighbours.<\/p>\n

They paint a picture of a nation built on a slippery relationship with due process and contracts, with little to no respect for M\u0101ori ownership.<\/p>\n

A common refrain in the historical account is problems arising from the \u201c10-owner rule\u201d. M\u0101ori traditional ownership of land was communal, but land-hungry settlers found this frustrating, as they often didn\u2019t know who to deal with.<\/p>\n

The 10-owner rule was the start of the Crown\u2019s attempt to fit M\u0101ori land into the European land system. The Native Lands Act 1865, set up to create legal titles for M\u0101ori, only allowed a maximum of 10 owners for any given block of land. Often this meant the recorded owners were only a subset of those connected with the land.<\/p>\n

Ng\u0101ti T\u016bwharetoa\u2019s account says the iwi later \u201cpetitioned for the cancellation of their 10-owner title \u2018because it is wrong that the Crown grant should have effect over the land of all the people, men, women, and children, we strongly object to that system\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey appealed to have all the owners included on the title for the block, but were unsuccessful.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other cases, those who were listed as owners had little or no connection with the land. The Ahuriri Hap\u016b account for the modern-day Napier area states, \u201cIn 1891, P\u0101ora Kaiwhata recalled that at the first hearings, \u2018The judges told us to go outside and choose 10 men for each block of land, and that the 10 would act for the people\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Surveying was also used by the Crown to encourage or force the sale of land. The T\u016bhoe account records, \u201cthe survey of Tahora 2 was conducted in secret, without authorisation and contrary to survey regulations. It was then approved by the Surveyor General, despite significant opposition from T\u016bhoe and other right holders. The unwanted survey cost the owners 16,658 acres [6741ha] of the block\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Crown often did not hold up its side of the bargain, particularly over promises to set aside land and build roads, schools and hospitals.<\/p>\n

The T\u016bhoe account reveals that an important factor in the tribe\u2019s original agreement was the promise of roads for the remote, bush-covered hills of Te Urewera in the eastern North Island. But the Government did not complete the roads, even though T\u016bhoe had contributed 16,187ha (40,000 acres) of land valued at \u00a320,000, about $2.4 million today, for this purpose.<\/p>\n

In Auckland, both Bishop George Selwyn and Governor George Grey recorded the Crown\u2019s failure to carry out its obligations. Ng\u0101ti Wh\u0101tua \u014cr\u0101kei\u2019s account records: \u201cThe Government\u2019s failure to set aside money for the endowment fund was criticised by Bishop Selwyn, who stated: \u2018By this fund, we hoped that schools, hospitals, hostelries, would be built; that every useful art would be taught; every habit of civilization [sic] introduced; and the whole social character of the people changed for the better … I am sorry to be obliged to state that not one of these objects has been accomplished, or rather that not one has been attempted\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same account also records that another \u201cfund was not drawn upon until 1862, when part of it was used to build a bridge between \u014cr\u0101kei and Remuera [which was also of general benefit to all Auckland residents]\u201d.<\/p>\n

About 15% of the North Island was confiscated from iwi who were \u201cin rebellion\u201d against the Crown. Some of this land was later returned when the confiscations were found to be excessive or taken from iwi who were not involved in the conflict, but the process of returning the land often created more problems.<\/p>\n

Ng\u0101ti Awa\u2019s account records that the Crown confiscated 99,148ha (245,000 acres) from the tribe, some from hap\u016b who had no involvement in the conflict. A court was set up to compensate anyone who had \u201csuffered land confiscation\u201d when they hadn\u2019t \u201cbeen in \u2018rebellion\u2019\u201d, but the two judges had both played important military roles on the Crown\u2019s side of the conflict. Unsurprisingly, they found most of the confiscations were valid \u2013 a further injustice eventually acknowledged by the Crown in the settlement agreement almost 150 years later.<\/p>\n

Similarly, Ng\u0101ti T\u016bwharetoa lost its Tarawera block (about 31,000ha or 76,700 acres) and the Tataraakina block (about 15,000ha or 37,000 acres) in the 1867 M\u014dhaka-Waikare confiscation but never got them back.<\/p>\n

The central North Island tribe\u2019s account reads: \u201cUnder the terms of the 1870 deed, these blocks were awarded to a small number of individuals from another iwi.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buchanan said the historical accounts were valuable as a snapshot in time but it was also helpful to look through a M\u0101ori lens, which viewed history as always evolving and changing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you wrote a historical account now of the region in Wellington central, maybe there\u2019d be some different observations,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something close to us all and I think that\u2019s important for everyone. Whether you\u2019re M\u0101ori, P\u0101keh\u0101 or have a combination of everything \u2013 or something completely different \u2013 it\u2019s an invitation to think about history as something living.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chris Knox<\/a> is a scientist turned data-journalist who investigates the stories behind the numbers and creates interactives for Herald readers to explore them.<\/p>\n

Save<\/a>Share this articleCopy LinkEmailFacebookTwitter\/XLinkedInReddit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wherever you live in New Zealand, there\u2019s a story \u2013 but most of us have no idea what…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2327,1443,14882,74,12889,31036,36016,3276,3105,868,34893,32896,1866,305,10938,66777,21081,217241,1861,9641,78,100343,19720,1743,4960,23226,301326,3025,3556,117,111,43,139,69,5908,3111,23277,12177,5348,427,18323,4504,24359,38961,62126,7245,6923,189903,224082,102,1530,80],"class_list":["post-611800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-2327","tag-about","tag-accounts","tag-after","tag-aotearoa","tag-asks","tag-buchanan","tag-chris","tag-data","tag-deals","tag-documents","tag-editor","tag-find","tag-have","tag-herald","tag-historian","tag-historical","tag-histories","tag-history","tag-idea","tag-in","tag-knox","tag-land","tag-launched","tag-live","tag-map","tag-moripkeha","tag-most","tag-national","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-official","tag-out","tag-rachel","tag-settlement","tag-showing","tag-story","tag-tell","tag-theres","tag-these","tag-treaty","tag-updated","tag-updates","tag-what","tag-whenua","tag-wherever","tag-with","tag-years","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}