Kā Whakatauraki: The Promises

Between 1844 and 1864, most of Te Waipounamu – 34.5 million acres –  was ‘sold’ to the Crown in exchange for what one Ngāi Tahu leader later described as the “crumbs that fell from the white man’s table”. In negotiating these ten large-scale land purchases, Crown officials offered Ngāi Tahu miserly sums in payment, applied time pressure, described land boundaries with ambiguity, and threatened to purchase territory from other iwi who were not the rightful owners. For the first time since their signing in the mid-1800s, this landmark exhibition brings together the purchase deeds of those land sales, illuminating the promises made and the injustices wrought upon Ngāi Tahu during a critical and formative period in New Zealand history.