On 11 December 2023, a group of artists and activists took another step in their ongoing protest at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. The group, called Te Waka Hourua, used power tools and spray paint to alter the text of an English display panel in the museum's Te Tiriti o Waitangi: Ngā Tohu Kotahitanga Treaty of Waitangi: Signs of a Nation exhibition.[1] The display that they redacted was an oversized wall panel depicting William Hobson’s draft of the Treaty of Waitangi, an illegitimate document that states Māori cede sovereignty to the Crown. This sparked nationwide discussion, beyond just the museum and gallery sector.
Te Waka Hourua are a tangata whenua (people of the land) and tangata tiriti (people of the treaty) protest group who formed in 2019. They are concerned with climate justice, freedom for Indigenous peoples and, most notably, inaccurate representations of this country’s history in our national museum.[2] Te Papa presents itself as the bicultural treasure box of Aotearoa New Zealand. Since 1998, the museum has positioned large wooden panels depicting Te Tiriti o Waitangi and Hobson’s draft of the Treaty of Waitangi opposite each other in a permanent exhibition. The curatorial decisions made by those at the museum led visitors to mistakenly believe that they are the same document in different languages, an issue raised by the Māori Advisory Board during the design process. In 1840, 500 rangatira (chiefs) signed Te Tiriti, stipulating that Māori retain rangatiratanga (chieftainship) and thirty-nine signed the English document that relinquishes sovereignty.[3] The two documents are distinct. Only a fraction of visitors to the museum are able to speak te reo Māori, meaning that the vast majority who viewed this exhibition left with an inaccurate understanding of Aotearoa’s history.
Te Waka Hourua’s ongoing protests against this exhibition are a form of archiving. The rōpu, or group, began with email correspondence, conversations, Official Information Act requests to Te Papa officials and sit-ins before resorting to their infamous ‘artivism’ in December 2023. On 25 October 2021, the rōpu — in association with the activist movement Extinction Rebellion — occupied the exhibition space for 181 minutes, representing the 181 years since Te Tiriti o Waitangi was signed.[4] Members used a blanket to temporarily obscure the English text. This blanket was then given by the rōpu to Te Papa as a koha (an offering or donation, especially one maintaining social relationships, that has connotations of reciprocity), not an object to be accessioned.
An email from the rōpu on 4 November 2021 reveals that they had an impromptu meeting with Te Papa staff, including Director of Audience Insight Puawai Cairns, on 28 October 2021. Cairns is said to have expressed interest in acquiring this blanket for Te Papa’s collection of ‘protest’ items, calling into question Te Papa’s role as archivists. While the museum has a collection of objects relating to various protest movements, to disregard Te Waka Hourua for years only to attempt to acquire their protest blanket is insulting. It also presents questions around how the very process of our national museum archiving such an item, changes it. Instead of adding the blanket to the collection, the museum put it in storage.[5] By stipulating that the blanket is a koha, Te Waka Hourua rejects the museum’s colonial form of archiving.[6] Naturally, the rōpu do not approve of the museum taking their blanket out of community hands and placing it into an inaccessible collection where its intended purpose (to protest the very museum that now possesses it) is dismissed. In this manner, Te Waka Hourua cements their identity as a group with Māori ideals at their core.
June 3 2024. Photograph courtesy of Luhama Tau’alupe.
A subsequent Official Information Act request response from Te Papa with heavy redactions inspired Te Waka Hourua’s response.[7] Entering Te Papa with high-vis workwear and an authoritative air enabled the rōpu to set up their abseiling equipment and create their artwork. The redacted panel now reads:
The T
reaty of WaitangiArticle the First
no
Article the Second
Her Majesty the Queen of England / is / the / alien
Article the Third
ration / the Queen’s / veges
After four months on display, Te Papa removed this panel on 23 April 2024. It is now in storage, while in its place is a temporary projected display. The museum has attempted to regain control of the narrative surrounding Signs of a Nation, taking official feedback in surveys conducted after the protest, but not listening to a large number of people who wished to keep the redacted panels on display — instead, choosing to hide them away. In contrast, Te Waka Hourua are open to the public, accessible and engaging — constantly questioning not just Te Papa but themselves and members of the public.
Today, the rōpu continue to protest — now on the grounds outside the building, as they have been trespassed — with much wider public support. They have created banners, composed poems and songs, and foster unity among Indigenous peoples by inviting Kanak and Palestinian speakers to their events. Many banners, including ‘Kōrero Pono Mai / Tell The Truth’, ‘Colonisation=Exploitation=Climate Catastrophe’ and ‘Sovereignty Was Never Ceded’ have been used at their own protests as well as those they attend for other causes.[8]
Unlike the blanket tucked away in Te Papa’s storage, these objects are available for the public to hold during protests, such as Te Waka Hourua’s King’s Birthday Bash on 3 June 2024. During this event, we listened to speeches from the rōpu as well as other Indigenous leaders, we sang an alternative version of ‘Happy Birthday’, stood in a circle of solidarity and marched around the museum chanting ‘Ration the Queen’s veges! / Refuse the Kolonial kool-aid!’. We also created another artwork by covering our thumbs in ink and pressing them (upside-down) on Te Papa’s thumbprint logo outside the building. This collective art-making sent a clear message to the museum that we are unimpressed with their responses.
Te Waka Hourua’s efforts are ongoing. Those that attend their protests are a part of a living, breathing archive that questions Western models that have caused so much harm to Māori. Part of this larger and continuously growing archive is a publication that the rōpu authored, Whītiki, Mātiki, Whakatika![9] A more traditional form of archiving, it contains first-hand recollections and reflections of their experiences at Te Papa, features memorabilia of the action and reaction from the public through collected responses and essays. The book is ever-evolving, currently at version 1.4, with plans to accumulate more imagery and text in newer editions. It is, like Te Tiriti, a living document — a counter archive.
[1] This permanent exhibition has been in Te Papa since the museum opened in 1998.
[2] Te Waka Hourua are a small group who have been persistent in their attempts to correct the Signs of a Nation exhibition, though they have only recently gained media and wider public attention.
[3] The differences in these texts have enormously impacted Aotearoa.
[4] In accordance with Te Waka Hourua’s values, this was a peaceful protest.
[5] Te Waka Hourua were unsure of where exactly their blanket was until I received information from Puawai Cairns on 16 August 2024. Cairns did not respond to my question regarding her reasoning for asking to acquire the item into the museum’s collection.
[6] Te Papa’s museum archive was founded by the Colonial Museum in 1865.
[7] Te Waka Hourua requested further details on the conception of Signs of a Nation, particularly information relating to Te Papa’s Māori advisory board. When the rōpu received a file with many redactions, they decided to redact Te Papa’s display in turn.
[8] These causes include Free Kanaky and School Strike 4 Climate.
[9] Te Waka Hourua, Whītiki, Mātike, Whakatika! 5ever books, Ver 1.4, Te Whanganui-a-Tara, 2024.