Commemorate Waitangi Day

See the Treaty of Waitangi

Come and get up close and personal with the Treaty of Waitangi at the National Library this Waitangi Day! Explore our range of reflective activities for you and your whānau.

HOME Café and He Matapihi Molesworth Library will also be open to the public.

Guided tours of He Tohu

Join our kaiārahi for 30-minute tours of our multi-award-winning exhibition He Tohu. Our tour guides will take you through the exhibition and delve into some of the stories surrounding the nine original sheets of the 1840 Te Tiriti o Waitangi, one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s founding documents.

Tour times

• From 10am until 4pm — Tours begin on the hour and half hour

• 11am and 1pm — Bilingual tours

He Tohu

Film screening — compilation of historical footage of Waitangi Day commemorations

Reflect on how the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi has been marked over the years through highlights drawn from Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision’s audiovisual collections.

Around 10,000 people gathered at Te Tii Marae in 1934 for the first official commemoration of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It was a day of celebration, full of formal speeches and performances. The event was captured on film and shared as a newsreel, allowing New Zealanders across Aotearoa to connect to the celebrations at their local cinema.

Since then, the annual commemorations of Waitangi Day have been captured on film and video, letting us observe changes to the event and in the way the public responds over many years. Through highlights drawn from Ngā Taonga’s audiovisual collections, we can reflect on how the signing of Te Tiriti has been marked over the years. The loop features clips from events in 1934, 1940, 1977, 1990, 1999 and 2003.

The films are shown in a loop between 9:30am and 4:30pm and go for 30 minutes.

Whānau activities

We've got activities for all the whānau, from making your own treaty to practicings your te reo Māori pronunciation. Come down and join us

Make your own treaty

Make your own treaty sheet out of paper. What agreement would you make with your whānau and visitors to your whare? Visit He Tohu and add a rubbing of the seal of the British Crown.

This activity will be available all day.

Dress up like in 1840

Dress up as if you were at the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and take a photo of yourself in costume.

This activity will be available all day.

Te reo Māori workshops

Join use for te reo Māori pronunciation workshops and get enjoy singing waiata.

Workshop times

• 11:30am — Pronunciation workshop

• 1:30pm — Waiata workshop

Timeline activity

All hands on deck! Join us to build a timeline of Aotearoa New Zealand’s history, attaching key historical moments to a shipping rope.

Timeline activity times

10:30am and 2:30pm

‘People of Te Tiriti o Waitangi’ banners

View an installation of four giant banners featuring Treaty signatories. The banners depict individuals (Hone Heke, Te Rangitopeora, Ereōnora and Panakareao, and Te Ware Pouri / Te Wharepōuri) whose actions shaped one of our founding documents, Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

This activity will be available all day.

Check before you come

Due to COVID-19, some of our events can be cancelled or postponed at very short notice. Please check the website for updated information about individual events before you come.

For more general information about National Library services and exhibitions, have a look at our COVID-19 page.