Myths and History: The Treaty of Waitangi as “The Magna Charta of New Zealand”

Abstract

In the early 1840s officials and missionaries frequently described the Treaty of Waitangi as the “Magna Charta of New Zealand” or the “Māori Magna Carta.” Others described that Treaty as “part of a series of injudicious proceedings.” It was the negative view of the Treaty that prevailed in the political and legal history of New Zealand after 1846 rather than the former. Yet public discourse over the decades has continued to invoke Magna Carta as a symbol to be associated with the Treaty. In this paper Williams will argue that there are good reasons, though not based on the actual history of Magna Carta or the Treaty of Waitangi, to associate these foundational documents together as important elements of an Aotearoa New Zealand national mythology.