E oho! Fighting the agents of deterioration — The archival story of Te Tiriti o Waitangi

Speakers

Richard Foy, Tanja Schubert-McArthur

Introduction

Richard Foy:

Korihi pō
Korihi ao
Hei tūria ki te matahau nō tū
Nō Tū te winiwini
Nō Tū te wanawana
Nō Tū te wehiwehi
Tū hikitia
Tū hāpainga
Tū whakaputa ki te whai ao
Tīhei mauriora

Ngā mihi, ngā mihi, ngā mihi nui a koutou katoa
Ko Wong Gok Fei toku ingoa tūturu,
Ko Richard Foy ahau.
He kaiwhakahaere ahau i te tīma Pūnaha Mōhio o Te Puni Kōkiri.
No reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa.

Thank you very much to the Waiata group and to the National Library for the wonderful welcome this morning. That was fantastic. I wish I could have joined in. I wish everyone could have joined in today. Maybe we'll do that later at the end of the talk. So as it was mentioned-- let me just get my remote control working here.

Just a little bit about me. Yeah, I'm currently with Puni Kokiri, where I look after the information management or Punaha Mohio Team. Any of my Te Puni Kokiri whanaunga here today? Yeah, maybe online. OK, that's cool. That's all right.

I'm also recently appointed the president of the Archives and Records Association of New Zealand, ARANZ. Are any of my ARANZ whanaunga following here today. If you are a member, whooo. You're very good, very good. And if you're not, see Eric or one of us later and we can get you signed up for a membership.

And as it was mentioned before, I'm a former chief archivist of Archives New Zealand, our National Archives from 2017 to 2020. Are some of my former Archives or current Archives whanaunga here today?

[CHEERING]

Very good, very good, very good. This is a very special place for me, this auditorium. I actually had my farewell here. This is a little picture of us. You will notice-- we probably couldn't do this today because you're not allowed gang signs in public. So they would probably be banned.

But yeah, I'm one or I was, at that time, I think, number 10 in the long line of chief archivists. And they put your pictures on the wall when you're finished. You're actually going to have, as part of this story today, we're going to hear or see a few other chief archivists who will actually appear in this story. There's four-- and Marilyn as well. So there's a few there.

Now if you have a look at this picture, I don't think the picture is up on the wall at the moment, because they're refurbishing the building and protecting it from earthquakes and things. But I always liked this set up here because I always thought it showed something a little bit different. There's a little secret in here. And it may not be obvious. It's pretty hard to see.

But I do have my Starfleet insignia there [laughter]. So it's the-- I'm the only chief archivist who's been part of Starfleet command. Anyway, today's talk is about Te Tiriti o Waitangi, something which has actually had a lot of attention in the public discourse, and mainstream media, and also social media just recently.

The last time I gave this talk was actually at Te Puni Kokiri for my kaimahi here. And we did that on the Friday before Waitangi day. And I thought, oh, it'd be really interesting to see how many stories there are about the Treaty at that time. So there's obviously just before Waitangi day.

So I did a bit of a Google search and just had a look at how many news articles in 2024. So it was just 2024 on Treaty of Waitangi. So I'm just scrolling through. And I think there were a couple of hundred. It has quietened down a little bit since Waitangi day, but it really was a reflection of how much the Treaty has really taken over, I guess, the consciousness of New Zealand, and New Zealanders, and the media during that time. And it's, as we all know, quite a big political football.

Now, I'll make an initial disclaimer that I am not a political scientist. I'm not a social scientist. I'm not an historian. So I try to get as much of the facts right as possible, but I might get some of the dates maybe not perfectly exact.

And as a serving public servant, I serve the government of the day. So I will be speaking, obviously, as a good upstanding civil servant. But it's amazing what you can talk about when you're talking about archival history of something.

So today's talk will really focus on the 184 years since 1840 to today 2024. But to give that talk, I think it's useful to have some context to talk about the time before Te Tiriti. And I'm able to do this through the magic of technology.

So I'm going to give you 824 years and extended edition of what was life-- what was happening in New Zealand in those 824 years before 1840. In fact, sorry. I'm going to add 639. OK, so 639 years. And I'm going to do that in 60 seconds.

So New Zealand between 1200 to 1839. I'm not going to do that on stage. I'm just going to show you a little video. Basically, I'm going to put you into a TARDIS. So think of me as your time lord not Doctor Who but maybe Doctor Wu. And I'm going to take you back in time. So just watch this.

[VIDEO PLAYBACK]

Visual

An animation showing a map of New Zealand and the arrival of people to Aotearoa from 1200 to 1839. It notes the signing of He Whakaputanga and the Treaty of Waitangi.

[END PLAYBACK]

He Whakaputanga Declaration of Independence

So of course, it ends in-- sorry, 1839, not with the signing of the Treaty but the signing of He Whakaputanga o Te Rangatiratanga o Niu Tireni which is the Declaration of Independence of the United Tribes of New Zealand. So we saw the 639 years of incredible civilization of society, which included trade, and commerce, and just a whole lot of living of tangata whenua before the signing of the Treaty.

And He Whakaputanga really is that moment of emergence of Māori to say, actually, we are here,take notice. And not only take notice, but we have sovereignty. And we have Rangatiratanga here on these lands.

James Busby, he was British resident at the time. He'll come up again in this story. The interesting thing, I think, is that it took four years to finally get all to two pages of He Whakaputanga signed, 52 signatories.

During the time of King William IV, he was asked to basically look after Māori here in New Zealand. And they came up with a fantastic flag at the time, which was probably about as close to a democratic flag as you can get. That's the flag there. This was probably the pinnacle of a democratic flag. When we had a referendum, I don't know about you, but I think this one was better.

Joseph Nias and William Hobson

All right, so let's get to 1840 with the Treaty. But actually, there's some kind of interesting stuff that happened in the year before, which I find quite fascinating. And which I'll refer to some archival material for in 1839. And it's really the story, cute story of Captain Joseph Nias who was a Royal Navy officer trying to get Consul William Hobson over from Australia to New Zealand.

Now, this has actually played out in letters. And I'll show you the letter very soon, but I kind of imagined, how would this be done today in the age of social media? How would some navy bros do this? [SOUND OF TEXT MESSAGES]

So there you are, great mates. Of course, we didn't live in those times. So in the pre-internet era, there actually is a letter, a document. I think it's held by archives, which is where this digitised version is. And it's quite difficult to read. But I'll read it out to you because I love how difficult it is to read.

So "Captain Lord John Churchill, commanding Her Majesty's ship Druid, having directed me to receive you on board the ship I have the honour to command. And to convey you as her Majesty's consul to New Zealand. I beg to acquaint you herewith and have to request you will be pleased to inform me on what date you will be ready to proceed thereto. I have the honour to be, sir, your most obedient servant, Joseph Nias, Captain". Which is a very long-winded way of “tell me when you want to go to New Zealand”.

Well, that's my understanding of it. And please note that at this time he's addressing Hobson as His Majesty's consul. So essentially, a representative-- the Crown's representative to New Zealand. And I love this. I should start using this when I email my bosses, "your most obedient servant." Take note of that. That'll come up again later.

All right, so that's the HMS Druid, which is the ship that Nias took Mr. Hobson to New Zealand and landing in Kororāreka, Russell. And then the next day, going across to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds. So this is what it looks like now today. Beautiful place up there.

Instructions for Treaty

And Hobson was given instructions to get busy or Busby on writing a Treaty. And of course, like any civil servant, when you get to a place, you constantly have to provide status reports to your boss. And here is a status report from-- yeah, a status report from Hobson back to his boss, George Gibbs, who was the governor in Australia.

And just saying, yep, we'll get busy on putting together the Treaty. And so they hooked up with James Busby at the residence, British residence house, where James Busby was living. This building is still there on Waitangi. Those people, I don't know, they're obviously not-- they're probably not British. They're probably not residents. I think they're probably just tourists back in the day. But here we go.

And basically, Hobson was relieving Busby in his role as British resident. So we know then about the signing of Te Tiriti. Here's a picture here. Obviously, it's a reproduction. It's just a painting of the time. And you've actually got some of the key conspirators-- or I shouldn't say that, some of the key actors, players from the Crown side.

So we've got Rev Henry Williams, who was a co-author of the Treaty, with Captain Joseph Nias, William Hobson, and James Busby. And we've got here Tamati Waka Nene actually signing. Now, I'm not going to go into the history of the Treaty in terms of the signing, the politics, the social aspects of it. But there's some interesting anecdotes that come along with this.

So I understand, after the Treaty sheets had been dispersed and had been signed, Lieutenant Governor William Hobson was pretty happy about this. He was pretty proud. And he won a bit of recognition. So he'd actually asked Captain Joseph Nias to give him a big ups in the form of a 13-gun salute. And again, I imagine this through social media. [LAUGHTER]

And I understand that between Joseph Nias and William Hobson, there was actually quite a bit of, yeah, disagreement about whether he was actually Lieutenant Governor or just the consul.

Journey of Te Tiriti sheets

Anyway, that tells the story, I guess, of where we need to get to, which is the Treaty or Te Tiriti, which most people, I guess, mistakenly think is this sheet here alone.

But of course, we know that actually Te Tiriti is nine sheets, two of which are parchment, which is the Waitangi sheet and the Herald Bunbury sheet. We have one existent sheet that's printed of what we believe to be about 200 at the time. And one sheet in English which is the Waikato-Manukau sheet.

And so the printed sheet is in te reo Māori and it would have probably been handed out where the English sheet was taken to be signed. Now, just as it took a few years for He Whakaputanga to be signed, they set themselves on goals. They had a target. They obviously had project managers in place. And they aimed to get these sheets signed up a little bit faster. So actually only eight months. And I've got a little video here to show you that as well.

[VIDEO PLAYBACK]

Visual

An animation of a map of New Zealand that shows the the voyage of the 9 sheets of the Treaty over 8 months in 1840 across New Zealand. The sheets went to 45 locations and gathered 542 signatures.

[END PLAYBACK]

Richard Foy: So nine sheets, eight months, 45 different locations around the country, a total of 542 signatories has become Te Tiriti of Waitangi, something that we think about and talk about a whole lot even in 2024, which is a good thing.

Archival story

So the rest of this presentation is really then about the archival story, what happened from 1840 through to 2024 in terms of the care, the preservation, and protection of Te Tiriti in terms of its nine sheets as an artifact, as taonga.

So less, I guess, about the ideas, and the meanings, and the dreams that are recorded and that are marked in the sheets, but how the sheets and the Treaty as an archive has been looked after.

Agents of deterioration

And so I'll do that by introducing you all to a concept called the agents of deterioration.

I actually tried to find a really scary image, which is why that-- I think that's Hydra from Marvel, but anyway. There are 10 agents of deterioration that we care about when we're preserving and conserving physical artifacts-- physical forces, thieves and vandals, fire, water, pestilence, pollutants, light,improper temperature, and improper relative humidity, and custodial neglect, or disassociation-- dissociation.

So I'm going to start by talking about how the Treaty, how Te Tiriti was under threat from one of those agents of deterioration. The very first one we'll focus on is fire. And I've got a little, very quick video here for that as well.

[VIDEO PLAYBACK]

Visual

A black, white and grey sketched depiction of a cat bounding across grass in front of rudimentary-looking wooden houses and clothes lines.

Audio

They say a cat has nine lives. The same could be said for the Treaty of Waitangi.

---

Visual

Front paw raised, the cat looks up at the wooden front door of a house. Inside, a man lies on a bed, covered in a blanket.

Audio

Queen Street, 1842, downtown Auckland.

---

Visual

A pair of boots sit by the man’s bed, which is next to a set of shelves and a cast iron potbelly fire.

Audio

Records clerk George Elliott lay sleeping in his cottage when suddenly he was awoken by screams and roars that splintered the break of dawn.

---

Visual

Bearded George sits up in bed and pulls on his boots.

Audio

Smoke curled under his door, snaking towards him.

Coughing and stumbling, eyes stinging from the smoke, he flung the door wide. What a sight. Fire raged through the town. Tongues of flame danced from house to house, devouring buildings whole.

---

Visual

Red, yellow and orange flames engulf buildings and lick the gutters and roofs of houses further up the street, where people are hunched over on their knees.

Audio

The Treaty!

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Visual

Eyes wide, George stands in the middle of the street, his hand held to his face.

Audio

George covered his face in cloth and dashed into the burning office where the Treaty was kept, frantically searching for the document.

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Visual

Having kicked down the door, George shields his head, then rapidly pushes aside piles of handwritten pieces of paper to reveal a large scroll buried underneath.

Audio

There! He swept the scrolls into his arms and sprinted for the door.

---

Visual

George runs away from the burning two-storeyed building.

Audio

With a great shudder, the building collapsed.

George fell back, gasping for air, but clasped safely in his arms was the Treaty.

[END PLAYBACK]

1842 — Fire

Richard Foy: Holy moly. When I heard this story, it's like, what? We almost burned it? Which is remarkable that our nation's most precious document, our founding constitutional document was almost burned to a crisp in 1842, with a whole bunch of other really important records too, I might add. So I understand that office is probably where we'd know Britomart to be today in Auckland. But incredible, just two years after being signed across the country, almost got burned up.

1876 — Lithography

So we're going to fast forward from 1842 to 1876. And I'm going to show you an interesting piece of bureaucracy, which is a memo about the getting of something called photolithographic technology for the government printing office. And actually the government printing office comes up again later in our story.

So I'll show you this little memo here. Basically, this is really talking about getting a photocopier before we had photocopiers. I'm not too familiar with photolithographic technology, per se, but it allows you to take photographic representations of things. So I think that's amazing.

And what I also thought was amazing was that, it was an opportunity to take a copy of Te Tiriti. So in 1877, when the photolithographic photocopier was purchased, this wonderful-- well, this is wonderful because it is from 1877 is really the best reproduction of that time of Te Tiriti. So it's fantastic you got all the signatures there.

1908 — Rats

Then we get to the 1908. And we don't necessarily know what happens between these times. And this is part of the archival story of little gaps in our memory of our history of the archival preservation and care of this artifact, what happens.

But in 1908, it was found, again, in what is called the Government Building. So if you're in Wellington, you'll probably be familiar with this building. This is a photograph picture from when it was new. This is what it looked like in 1955. This is probably what it looks like today. But I imagine in 1908, it looked pretty much like this.

And famous historian and fossicker for old things, Dr. Thomas Morland Hocken visited the old government buildings looking for things that might have been left behind. Now, you may have heard of Hocken. He's got a library, a private library named after him, down in Dunedin, University of Otago. It's a wonderful archival research library. I like pictures of shelves with books on them. There's a full mark. It's a shelfie. It's a fantastic picture.

So Thomas Morland Hocken fossicking around, looking for things, trying to find old records. And he comes upon the Treaty. He comes upon the documents. And in his words, found buried in a heap of old papers and rubbish in the basement, in the basement of the old Government Building.

And there it had already started to be ravaged first from the threat of fire, but now in the basement from water damage. Rats and mice had started to eat away at the edges of the parchment of the two sheets. It hadn't been kept under relative humidity or temperature control, because I'm sure back in those days they did not have those in those buildings. So already starting to decay and not be well looked after.

And we can tell that easily by looking at the differences between what it looks like today in 2024 in terms of the Waitangi sheet and what it looked like in 1877. And I imagine that Hocken saw it closer to its state on the left. So you can see where the rats have eaten away at the edges of the parchment.

And as we understand it, rats find parchment very tasty. Far greater nutrition in parchment than in normal paper. And you can see that much information has actually been lost on the Waitangi sheet because of that destruction.

And it always makes me ask, "What would George Eliot say" in a case like this? Where he had put his life on the line to save Te Tiriti and a whole bunch of other really important records of government from that burning fire, from that fire to now find that it had been dumped into the basement and not cared for.

I think he would be pretty pissed off.

[VIDEO PLAYBACK]

- You can't be serious, man. You cannot be serious.

[END PLAYBACK]

I'm pretty sure that he would have a John McEnroe moment. I mean, you look at that. You put your life on the line. And you're like, we really better look after these things now.

1913-1915 Conservation treatment — pollutants

Yes. All right, well, they did get some good treatment.

So between 1913 and 1915, we do know that Te Tiriti was sent to the Dominion Museum. Now, the Dominion Museum is just behind where the legislative chambers or Parliament is today. It's obviously been replaced by the beehive. Some of you, growing up, may remember the Dominion Museum when it was actually in a different part of town.

But back then, it was by Parliament. And Te Tiriti was given conservation treatment, which is kind of like going for a spa treatment, just being really well looked after, pampered, made to look nice again. Unfortunately, conservation treatment, and methods, and, I guess, science and understanding back in those days was not as good as we would know it today.

So they used starch paste. They mounted the parchment onto canvas and paper sheets onto linen. And actually, that treatment probably caused more damage. There was stains that were created. And you got hardening of the parchment. And you can really see that there. Also you'll probably notice that there's some quite uniform bits that were taken out of Te Tiriti. There clearly they were not rats or mice but actual clean cuts.

So as I understand, that was done by-- and we don't necessarily know when, to take samples so that we could probably get some advice about how best to care about that. So that was probably a bit of an own goal. And I consider, we actually added pollutants as an agent of deterioration into that mix.

1931 — Physical force

It takes to 1931. And in 1931, New Zealand and the Hawke's Bay suffered an awful earthquake. So that's a great example of physical force in terms of an agent of deterioration. And another one of the gentlemen that appeared on that wall of photos early on is Guy Hardy Scholefield, who was the controller of the Dominion archives. So he was the equivalent of the chief archivist of the time.

And he had these wonderful words to say, probably cabinet or some minister that would pay attention. "When once a place is shattered by an earthquake, fires almost invariably follow. In these circumstances, it is more than ever necessary that state papers should be stored as much as possible off the earthquake line."

And so he made a great appeal to government to really take care of government's records and its archives. And put them in a place where they could be safe, build the facilities, and the property, and the buildings, and all the safeguards to look after these documents to combat the agents of deterioration.

And as we understand it, that wasn't quite-- it was only partially successful, that plea to government, but he was given money to buy a tin box. And to which he would put Te Tiriti. So we come back to the Old Government building.

And Hocken found that the Treaty documents in the dungeon in 1908, as he referred to it. But by 1931, we had at least managed to elevate it from the-- from the dungeon into the attic, to take a little bit better care of those documents, but at least they were in a protective box.

1940 — Light

Then we get to 1940 and the Waitangi centenary, so 100 years from the signing of the Treaty. And you have to remember, by this point, the Treaty had not actually been out in public view and had not been accessible or visible to the public in general during that time, not only not well cared for but not visible, not part of the nation's consciousness.

So in 1940, as part of the celebration of the signing of Waitangi after 100 years, great opportunity to bring it out into open and make it public. So here we see the Great Sir Apirana Turupa Ngata dancing there. And that's right next to the British residence home, I understand, at Waitangi. So it's still there.

And we hear about another great archivist or record keeper. This gentleman from internal affairs WH Goldsworthy, who was given the task of transporting Te Tiriti from Wellington, where it was kept in a tin box up to Waitangi. And he did that on a train, a very long train trip, I imagine, with the documents.

And for the very first time in 100 years to the public, it was displayed in all its glory, I believe, on a table under the bright sunlight, which we know is one of the agents of deterioration. We probably ought not to have it under very bright light. Again, that'll come up a little bit later. Now, fantastic.

1942–1946

But 1943, 1946, we know them as the war years, actually. It probably started in '39, right? I told you I'm not a historian. But during this time, the world is wracked by a World War. You would have probably heard the interesting stories most recently around Oppenheimer-- well, sorry, not that Oppenheimer, this Oppenheimer. And the very real threat of things like atomic bombing, but just bombing in general.

So there would have been war planners at some point looking at, what would happen to New Zealand, to Wellington if there were a bomb threat? So I believe this is post-war, this artifact. But obviously, the planners had done some thought to say, well, actually, if we have a railway station there if that was ground zero, the epicentre, we're actually not far away from the railway station. And those Old Government buildings are over there.

So the threat of bombing, of invasion during World War II was obviously ever-present in people's mind, probably not atomic bombs because that was kept secret during the time, obviously, but just conventional bombing could do a lot of damage as was seen in Tokyo, and London, and across Germany.

So Te Tiriti was packaged up yet, again, and taken to what is probably the safest place in New Zealand, which is Masterton. And it was put into the Public Trust Office. And yet again-- and it's maybe a little bit anecdotal, but wasn't necessarily put-- wasn't put on public display. It was really meant to be kept in a little vault. And as we understand it, it was actually a bit too big to fit in the place they wanted to put it. So it was left in some back corridor in the Public Trust Office. A bit sadly.

1952 — Hope Gibbons Fire

Brings us to 1952. 1952, for any of our friends from archives, and maybe ARANZ, and anyone else that cares is a really big year because we had a fire here in Wellington on, is it Dickson Street, I think, as we would know today. The Hope Gibbons Fire of 29 July, 1952.

And what rose out of that fire and obviously some attention from government that it ought to look after its records and archives a little bit better was the Archives Act of 1957. And from which arises our national archives, Archives New Zealand. And of course, that's been superseded nowadays by the Public Records Act of 2005. Now, this is not a lecture on that. Thank goodness.

But it does remind us of the fact that, at one point in time, for a very long point in time, government really didn't care about its physical records, or digital records, or whatever. And the Archives Act of '57 and the Public Records Act of 2005 is an attempt to regulate our management of information, which includes important artifacts and archives and taonga like Te Tiriti.

So there actually were some survivors from the Hope Gibbons fire. These you can actually probably see at archives. Here was one of them. Some of them have been digitized, I understand. And that's what they look like when they're digitised [LAUGHTER].

1956 — Alexander Turnbull Library

All right, in 1956-- 1956. Although the National Archives had been created, it was decided to move Te Tiriti to the Alexander Turnbull Library and to be taking care of there. So this is an old-timey picture from 1929 to the corner of Lambton Quay and Bowen Street. And you can see, just in the background there is Alexander Turnbull House.

And this is what it looks like today. It's a heritage building. So it's probably still very well looked after, but I don't think anyone's inside that. Most of you will know that the Turnbull Library now lives with the National Library. And occupies levels 1 and 2 here in this building that we're in, but this was the home previously.

1961 — Te Tiriti on display

And then in 1961, after a bit of treatment and care, it was again open to the public. So this lovely Turnbull House became the place in which you could come to see the Treaty. And we got a little video from around-- I think it's around the 1970s, not exactly sure. You'll probably be able to tell by looking at the fashion and maybe the language.

[VIDEO PLAYBACK]

Visual

Tour group with a tour guide looking at the Treaty of Waitangi display

Audio

Tour guide: The Treaty of Waitangi, of course, which is lent to us by National Archives for permanent display here. Unless you have all these sheets, you don't have the whole Treaty, including the small printed sheet at the top here. You can see the Treaty looks a bit peculiar in parts here and the bottom of the parchment sheet.

That's because when restored in the big wooden government buildings on Lambton Quay, the rats, unfortunately, chewed away quite a lot of it. Most of the Māoris like most of the Europeans couldn't write. One or two had been taught. Hone Heke who signed first had been taught in his own name. But most of the Māoris signed, as you can see, with these rather cute looking squiggles. And that represents part of that particular Māori's own tattoo on his face.

[END PLAYBACK]

Richard Foy: That was definitely a video of the time, wasn't it? And I'd be-- I'm pleased to say that the Public Engagement team of the National Library has newer skills today and is far more well acquainted with Te Ao Māori and Tikanga Māori. But anyway, this was the public display of Te Tiriti, all nine sheets pinned up against the wall in a beautiful case, one might say or not so beautiful. I don't know what you think of that, very lovely woodwork.

But of course, you know, the conservators and the preservation people of the Turnbull Library at that time, they were also aware of things like fade due to light. And so it was deemed that they couldn't just leave the things on display open to the fluorescent lighting and the exterior lighting all the time.

They would need to put in place the right kinds of countermeasures and protections to preserve these treasured documents. So they bought some red drapes that they would close over that display. I think that's beautiful. Simple technology for simple times.

1966 — Concerns about how Treaty was cared for

All right, in 1966. So more preservation and conservation was done on the Treaty. And actually, here's a good example of one of the sheets, where you can actually see a lot of the fading of the tohu, the marks on one of the sheets. Which is a combination, I guess, of the type of ink which is an iron gall ink, which is probably susceptible to fade, but also the amount of light that has fallen upon these sheets over time. And is a real concern for all of the documents, not just the parchment ones.

I found this fantastic piece of media, back in the times, or an article actually about concerns in that time. So this is 1966. Concerns for how the Treaty was being cared for. And there's a picture of Turnbull there. And actually one of those gentlemen is John Pascoe, who also had his photograph up on the wall with me in that earlier photo. The photo is so fuzzy, I can't tell which one is he. I think it's the one on the left.

1978 — Treaty kept secure in Reserve bank

All right, so in 1978, something really interesting happened though. And I actually learned this information today by conversing by text and email with one of our former regional archivists, Chris Adam from Christchurch. And he was talking to a former Dunedin regional archivist, Peter Miller, who was talking about a former archivist, Stuart Strachan, about this particular topic. So I actually know more information today than I did before this talk.

And apparently, around this time, a novel was written called "Broken October", which was a hypothetical fictional story of Māori activists breaking into archives and stealing Te Tiriti. And so, I guess at that time, out of a bit of concern, they decided to move to Te Tiriti from where it was being held to this building, which is the Reserve Bank, which is the Corner of the Terrace and Bowen Street. So you can go there.

Now the really interesting part of the story was that, as it was relayed to me this morning, was that it was-- the Treaty was very well packaged up, put in the back of Stuart's Vauxhall Viva car, driven to the Reserve Bank, at which point he wanted a deposit note because when you deposit something like this at a bank, you want a deposit slip.

But of course, the people at the bank, the Reserve Bank said, well, we need to see what you're depositing here. It's like, I'm depositing the Treaty of Waitangi. He would not open it up. So the deposit slip apparently said something like, deposited apparently, purportedly the Treaty of Waitangi. At which point it was taken down into the lower-- into the basement of the Treaty-- into to the vault and stuck on top of some crates of money.

Anyway so these anecdotal stories are wonderful. So that's where it sat for a period of time.

Treaty neglect criticised by Claudia Orange

And it also, around that time, there was this-- here we go, stuck in the vault in this article.

This article, I think, is particularly interesting. And I'll read this bit because it's very meaningful in the moment that we're in.

So historian Dr Claudia Orange, who's now Dame Claudia Orange, author of a recent book, which studies the Treaty and its interpretations, in fact, you can probably buy that book in the National Library bookstore. Don't worry, I'm not getting any kickbacks. I'm just trying to encourage you to support the National Library. Said it was ironical the documents said to be so central to the country's history had been so badly neglected.

The neglect had to be understood in terms of 19th-century ideas about the Treaty when the colonial government would have been quite happy to forget the documents existed. She believed the Treaty would, in the future, be treated with far greater respect as people began to realise its significance to New Zealanders in terms of land, fisheries, language, and so on.

And I think we've-- so yeah, I think they were very prophetic words by Dame Claudia Orange around the actual lack of care and concern for the physical artifact and therefore the care and concern for the ideas, and the ideals, and the concepts, and the dreams, and hopes that are marked in the Treaty.

Also note, for my organisation, Te Puni Kōkiri, which is a successor to the Department of Māori Affairs said, all the letters written to the Department of Māori Affairs in the 19th century have been lost. Awful, all right.

1990 — Sequicentennial — concern about thieves and vandals

Now, I'll take you to 1990. And if you're really good at math, you'll realise that 1990 is 150 years after 1840. And it's called a sesquicentennial. And if you grew up in Wellington, you would have been overtaken by the sesquicentennial fever. And here's a picture of-- I can't remember the name of the gentleman, but a model of the sesquicentennial fair area they created. It was going to be massive. Apparently, it closed after about 12 days. And it sort of bombed because it wasn't very popular.

But part of the sesquicentennial, yet again, was an opportunity to bring the Treaty back into the nation's consciousness, back to citizens so they could actually see the Treaty in all its glory. And at that time, an archivist from Archives was in contact with police about what are the risks of us actually bringing the Treaty out and what would you have to do.

So there's a wonderful little memo and the response back from New Zealand police saying, well, we've got to be kind of careful because there's activists on every side. And if it was actually on display and if we took it up to Waitangi, it would need to be under police guard and protection. So a reasonable amount of care and thought. It might have been a little bit misguided, but who knows. So that's a great example, though, of their concern around thieves and vandals on Te Tiriti.

1991 — National Archives

We're moving along. We're getting close to today. So 1991. You're all familiar with this building here. And we're seated in the auditorium part. Up the street-- up the street is this magnificent building, which is the National Archives building in 10 Mulgrave Street, which I always think looks like a Soviet era apartment block.

And it's not nearly as beautiful as what it's going to be replaced by very soon, which is the new Archives building on Aitken Street, which will be connected to this building. But that building, not too bad. It was, of course, was a refurbishment of the old Government Printing Office before it became the Archives Building.

And the printing office well known for having big printing presses, lots of paper, heavy loads. So the flooring could absolutely look after the stacks of records and archives that are there today. And really, due to the tireless work of Ray Grover, a very well-known former director or chief archivist of our Archives.

And he had grand-- he was a big dreamer. And he had grand plans and ideas for what archives would look like after the building refurb. Didn't quite work out that way, not too far off. So this is what it looks like there. Having spent a lot of time in that building as chief archivist, I used to think of it as my Mojo Dojo Casa House.

And if you look in the thing, one of my cousins is there, just looking at me there. Now, you see the outside. Most of you will never see the inside. Most of the public will never see what it's like in the inside, and the bowels, and in the stacks of the Archives Building there.

So here's a little-- just a very little clip of what some of the shelving, the more shelfies, but these are moving ones. So loads and loads of shelves, and loads, and loads of records and archives stored in that building.

But in that building, now closed, is this very important building-- sorry, this is a very important room called the Constitution Room at Mulgrave Street, where Te Tiriti and, as you can see, a whole array of other important archives and documents are stored around it. So this was the home of Te Tiriti for about 25 years in that Constitution Room, which is literally a vault. So moving from the vault in the Reserve Bank to the vault in Mulgrave Street.

2017 — He Tohu National Library opens

But everything has its time. So in 2017 some things had to change. Oh, actually, I forgot about this, the fake Treaty. You all know about this. You'll have seen it if you've been to our National Museum Te Papa. OK, so just-- it should be pretty obvious that that is not Te Tiriti. Anyway, so I always need to remind people of that.

So in 2017, after a really good 25 years in the Archives Building, it was decided that a new home and a new exhibition for Te Tiriti would be created at the National Library, this building, just upstairs. But you don't just go from A to B in a straight line. No, we have to do things that are very planned well, and very well managed, carefully constructed, and planned movement of these very precious documents. In fact, not just Te Tiriti, but also He Whakaputanga, and the Women's Suffrage Petition.

And so on the morning of Saturday the 22nd of April, 2017, I remember this was a very cold day. So that's the vault of the old Constitution Room. Here are the three-- our three constitutional documents in these various carriers that have been specially constructed for their journey across the street.

And some of the wonderful staff who were shown or kaimahi in this photo are probably here today. And you hopefully recognise Marilyn Little who was the Chief Archivist preceding me. And so wonderful. Well, we compare this kind of movement with a lot of ceremony, a lot of care, where tikanga is absolutely integral to the move. Compare that to throwing it into the back of a Vauxhall Viva and driving it to the Reserve Bank. Different times. Different times. Different ways.

But some beautiful photos. And put onto a flatbed truck because, actually, I think they're quite heavy. You don't want to carry those things too far by hand. A wonderful day. So iwi from around the country converged on Wellington that morning to witness, to be a witness to this incredible event. Here we go. Coming in the door. Magical moment. All right, and they're just waiting. So at that point, the He Tohu, exhibition and the document room had not been completed. So they were just put somewhere safe.

2024 — He Tohu today

So we get to 2024. And we now have, since 2017, the He Tohu exhibition, which is about a Declaration, a Treaty, and a Petition. So combined together, the three most important constitutional documents of New Zealand of which, arguably, Te Tiriti is the most important.

If you haven't been to He Tohu, well, you can still go to part of it today because parts of it are just shut down whilst the refurbishments are being done and space is made to build, I believe, a bridge between the National Library Building and Archives. But I always used to think that the document room, He Whakapapa Korero is the best part of Archives in the National Library, best room in the house.

It's referred to often as a Waka Huia because it is a precious treasure box. And I couldn't think of anything more precious than Te Tiriti and He Whakaputanga, and the Suffrage Petition, then those documents in this very beautiful treasure box. Oh, that's cool. That's the front door to the document room.

And it is, as I understand it, the only manually or human made part of that room. So it's all computer designed by architects and designers and then milled using computer aided milling machines, but the front door is carved out through using an adze by Bernard Makoare. So he's a wonderful carver, artist, and designer from Northland. So you touch that. And I am always happy to say that the little badge that I've got was made by Bernard. Yeah, so I'm very pleased to have this insignia from Bernard. It's a beautiful thing.

So if you go into the document room, which you can still do despite the exhibition part not running at the moment, you will actually find the sheets, all nine sheets displayed beautifully. And yes, there's a lot of lighting in here, but those lightings are on timers in order to protect from that agent of deterioration.

Summary — The journey of the Treaty

So we've gone from barely escaping a fire, to a dungeon, to having a questionable spa treatment, to being sent to the backwaters of New Zealand, safest place, in Masterton, to the Turnbull Library, being on display here, just pinned up on the wall as if they're some newsletters, to the Reserve Bank vault.

Oh, I was going to say to Te Papa. No, not to Te Papa. Back to Archives, and this Constitution Room, now to finding their home here in this wonderful building. And I can absolutely say, it's a one-- it's a once in a lifetime-- you can go many times. And it's free. So you should go many times, but it is a beautiful experience to be amongst these documents in that document room.

We've used that space over the years to show dignitaries from overseas. So here's the president of Ireland there. Royalty, the King and Queen of Tonga. New Zealand's own Royalty, former Prime Minister Helen Clark. Celebrities [LAUGTHER]. You'll recognise him. That's right. And he's so majestical. But really, it's also just for everyday New Zealanders and Kiwis who will come to be in the presence of Te Tiriti and the documents.

Te Tiriti — Cared for today but custodial neglect in past

And yeah, it does bring us to where we are today. I think it's important to note that there is tremendous care, archival conservation and preservation care given to these artifacts, these documents today. And it's done by people who work tirelessly to look after them, not just for today so they can be viewed but absolutely for the long term, for future generations, kind of to try and make up for what we didn't do for the last 184 years.

In 2019, we actually came across a part of the Treaty or what was believed to be part of the Treaty and a small piece of parchment. And so in a bit of CSI-- PIPITEA, use a bit of DNA testing, which did not mean sending it to Ancestry or 22andMe, but probably using some slightly more sophisticated technology determined that that blank piece of parchment was indeed part of the Treaty of Waitangi.

And this parchment had been given to that Alexander Turnbull Library by a former Native Affairs minister back in 1929. And what we did was actually do some DNA testing with some help from Dr. Lara Shepherd, who's from Te Papa to actually figure out, what is the sheet? Can we actually match it to the rest of the Waitangi sheet? Yes, we can.

And using the power of technology, discovered that the parchment was from a female sheep, which is, I think, amazing. But what that also tells us is that there are, as I mentioned before, huge gaps in our knowledge, in our history of our care in these documents, where we don't know what happened to them. We don't know whose care they were in. In fact, we saw the evidence of a lack of care.

And that is the worst thing in the world in terms of the agents of deterioration, because that is custodial neglect or dissociation, when you have ceased to care about and take note of that which is within your charge and responsibility and that is something that hopefully will never happen ever again. And certainly not within the lifetime of Archives New Zealand.

And so we have wonderful people, some of which may be online, some who might moved on, but this is a photo from back in the day of the team that had the primary responsibility for looking after Te Tiriti and the other documents of He Tohu.

And this is during one of the annual condition assessments, where I was really privileged to be allowed to have a look at them. I think I just said, can I actually have a look at them, up close. And they said, if you're a good boy, Richard. And I was a good boy this day.

And it was a moving moment because this is clearly the Waitangi sheet. And you get to see it outside of the case. And those cases are-- they're not quite bulletproof. They come from a German company called Glasbau Hahn and they are incredibly robust. So they can withstand 50 blows of a hammer to them. And you won't get to 50 because the security guards will be on you well before then.

But just to know that there's incredible protection now around those documents. But here they are, effectively unprotected. We don't tell you when these condition assessments happen. I think the replicas are put in place. So you'll never know. It's like the president of the United States. These guys are like Secret Service agents here.

Anyway, getting close up to the sheet, all I could focus on was I didn't want any of my DNA or detritus to get onto the sheet. But you could feel the mauri and the wairua it was just coming out from it. It really is quite magical. And so we do have people that really care for these documents now. And here's a lovely picture. Mark, you probably took this photo.

Terence.

Oh, OK. Oh, Terence. So a picture of Anna Whitehead and Peter Whitehead. So Anna is the conservator for Archives New Zealand and Peter's collection care leader Turnbull Library. This is date night for them [LAUGTHER], just geeking out, just looking at stuff.

Vicki-Anne Heikell and I think David's over there as well. Fantastic. So wonderful people who have really looked after. And they will obviously have to pass it on to future generations. But also He Tohu needed to be an exhibition and all the material and content around it. So we had Stefanie Lash and Jared Davidson, curators of He Tohu.

Te Tiriti a living archive

So today, it's good to say that these documents are now within the care of these fine institutions, the National Library and Archives New Zealand, who will make sure that these artifacts aren't just artifacts but are living, not relics but living archives, and records, and statements of, I guess, the hundreds of tohu and dreams that were marked on those sheets.

So that we can actually think about them today, and that our kids and our mokopuna can think about them, and have some debates, and talk about them, and try to figure out, what could be imagined for our future? And this is where I like to think about alternative history. So you know I'm a Star Trek fan. So this is Captain Kirk and Spock, as most people know of them.

But in that universe, there was a mirror universe, an alternative reality where Kirk and Spock are not so nice. They're evil. So we'll go back to here. But that idea-- that idea of good and bad, that idea of one path that could be taken another path that could be taken. And I always think about, what could New Zealand have been like today, what would our society be like today had we taken great care of Te Tiriti for those last 184 years and not just since a couple of decades ago?

But if the care, and the concern, and I guess the access, and just the preservation, and conservation of those documents had been top of mind for New Zealand government through that entire time, maybe we'd be having different discourse and conversations here today.

But now that the National Library and especially Archives New Zealand do have that concern and care and will look after these documents for the long-term future and future generations, what future that might hold for us in terms of the way we think of Te Tiriti. And I think that's it. Thank you.

[APPLAUSE]

Patai | Questions

Tanja Schubert-McArthur: Ngā mihi nui ki a koe, Richard.

Thank you very much for this inspiring talk. And no matter how often I've done a tour in He Tohu and how much I know already, there's always something that sticks out and that's new. So thank you for the detail. Now is the time to ask questions. And also if you're watching this online, you can put your question in the Q&A. And I can read it out of the tablet. If you have to run away, you can do so discreetly.

Richard Foy: Or not so discreetly. That's OK. No offense taken. People have work to do and lives to lead. That's right.

What was it like to attend the Dawn ceremony for He Tohu?

Tanja Schubert-McArthur: But I thought maybe I'd start off with asking you Richard about your personal involvement in looking after Te Tiriti. And I understand you were at Archives New Zealand when the documents were moved to a National Library, is that correct?

Richard Foy: No, I was-- it was Marilyn Little who was the chief archivist at the time. I was working in the building in that space. So I was around, but it wasn't until the exhibition was actually opened.

Tanja Schubert-McArthur: Did you go to the dawn ceremony?

Yes, I did. And it was very cold. That's what I remember. And the kai was really good at the local marae afterwards. So it was amazing. And it was a very magical day. It was fantastic as well because there was contemporaneous translation. So you know, I'm not fluent in te reo so it was amazing to actually hear the conversations as they were happening. And yes, it was like being a fly on the wall, but you could actually understand what was happening, yeah.

Tanja Schubert-McArthur: Excellent. Do we have any questions in the room? Emma.

Reversing archival treatment?

Audience member: Kia Ora, Richard. That was amazing. Thank you.

Richard Foy: Thank you.

Audience member: With the parchment that was then mounted with the starch and stuff on the paper, was a decision made then to take it back off that mounting or what does an archivist do in that situation?

Richard Foy: Yeah, well, the conservators-- and I think this was in the '80s. I can't remember exactly. But they were effectively taken off. And I guess using whatever technology and skills they had at that time to remove it from-- it was canvas, wasn't it? It was canvas and then linen.

So yeah, trying to-- we can never return it back to its original state. And the work by the conservators and the preservation folks is never to try and make it go back to the day it was signed, but it's all about preventing any further degradation from those agents of deterioration.

And I'm sure they would have thought long and hard as to how they would do that to not make it worse. It's a bit like looking after a patient. I guess it's do no harm. But we have their work to thank for the relatively OK state that they're in now.

What happened to George Elliott?

Audience member: Hello. Whatever happened to George Elliott?

Richard Foy: Oh, and his name is George Elliott Elliott, but I always just call him George Elliott. So he has one of those weird names.

Audience member: Very unimaginative parents.

Richard Foy: I don't know. I mean, he was a record keeper. He was a records manager, good people. I don't know. He probably got sent to Masterton [LAUGTHER]. Who knows. Who knows. This is lost in history, that stuff. And that's the thing, a lot of the story I've shared with you, some of it is written and documented in places, but we don't have the really detailed record of everything that we should have.

And nowadays, we have 24 hours a day eyes on, can I say that in a slightly figurative way, eyes on the Treaty because in the document room, there's surveillance cameras or cameras which-- security cameras which watch for people's movements in the building. There's all sorts of sensors to ensure the environment's just right.

And literally, if someone did have a go at the cases, they will be stopped. And in fact, I think in my time that actually happened. I can't remember exactly what it was, but security guards get there very, very quickly. They probably practice that like a SWAT team or something.

Acknowledgement to Richard Foy

Audience member: Kia ora. I wanted mihi to you. And first I need to say aroha mai because when I saw that there was a talk from an archivist, I thought this is going to be really boring [LAUGTHER]. But my mihi to you is that you brought to us a living document. And I was so moved-- I was actually moved to the point of tears in watching that. So I just wanted to say-- to acknowledge that. And thank you for the care that you have taken in educating us, in sharing with us, in allowing us on that journey. So ngā mihi.

Richard Foy: Oh, thank you.

[APPLAUSE]

What other documents should be displayed?

Audience member: Kia ora. In a way, following on from that and taking into account your concluding remarks, are there any other key documents that if you had a magic wand and I gave you the archival museum for the country, what other documents would you display as key documents that would help an ongoing dialogue in New Zealand about things that matter to us? I'm sure there must be some you've got tucked away in the Archives that I've never seen.

Richard Foy: Well, indeed. And I have to say, that's not my responsibility or job anymore. And I did not take any when I left by the way [LAUGTHER]. Well, there were a lot of documents and archives that were in the original Constitution Room, which they provide some interesting backstory and context to the three that are upstairs.

And there will be countless thousands, if not millions of records that if you piece them together tell that story. It's the job of Archives New Zealand to ensure that, yes, they are kept but also to make sure that they're accessible. My personal hope would be that we could digitise more of those, both for preservation purposes and to make them accessible for future generations.

So you could pick out favourites. And I hate favourites. Te Tiriti was my favourite. It's like your children. You're not meant to have favourites, but you do. I hope none of my kids are watching this online. But yeah, you do have favourites, but what your favourite is versus what actually is meaningful in terms of providing context is a different matter.

And it's not our place to say, this is the only one that you need to look at. And so broader digitisation, and broader access, and actually education through history. I didn't do history, but when I was at school-- because I probably thought it was boring. And ngā mihi to your comment that you came to a talk that you expected to be boring. Man, that's discipline. That's fantastic.

[LAUGHTER] We should be paying you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, I couldn't put my fingers on particular things because it depends on what part of history of New Zealand you want to think about or you think is important. And that's something for other folks to decide.

Did the parchment come from a Kiwi sheep?

Audience member: Kia ora, Richard. Andy here. Your comment about the extra bit of parchment that was DNA matched to the Treaty inspired me to think about, what else we learned about it then, was it a kiwi sheep for example? And had it been-- had the parchment been used and cleaned? Did we do any spectral imaging to test it?

Richard Foy: What I know is that it was not a New Zealand sheep, but it was parchment from Europe. And I presume partly because we probably didn't make much parchment here in New Zealand back in the day. But beyond that, there's so little information to go off. So it's remarkable, I think, that just from that DNA testing you could figure out it was a female sheep. But yeah, that's about as much as we know. And that it wasn't sourced in New Zealand. I don't think we can figure out which stationery shop they got it from.

[LAUGHTER]

What is the next stage in the Treaty story?

Audience member: Hi, Richard.

Richard Foy: Hello.

Audience member: I know. Not the first question, isn't it embarrassing? Thank you for that. The story of the Treaty, we often find, as it goes through the general oafishness of New Zealand record keeping practices, as well as its own story, in many aspects it's like a story of a nation coming into itself and into a better understanding of itself, just in the way it's treated, just in the way that we know who it is, its value. What would you think is the next stage in the Treaty story? Because it's going to outlive us. You can speculate.

Yeah, well, no, I--

I don't expect you to pull out the notebook and go, oh, yeah.

Richard Foy: Well, as I said, I'm not a political scientist, social scientist, or anything like that. So this story is about the archival story and getting it to a point where we know it can be looked after and is accessible, but not just that. That the mana of Te Tiriti and of those that left their mark on it are somehow uplifted. And if you go into the document room, you'll note the precise placement of the Waitangi sheet and how it faces off against Parliament. And so that was by design of the designers of the exhibition.

So from an archival preservation care point of view, that job is done to this point and will be ongoing. It's up to the rest of New Zealand, to historians, to educators to now do their part in uplifting the mana of those documents. I think when I was at Archives and some of you folks are from there, there was a lot of sadness in terms of the move from the Constitution Room to upstairs.

And I respect that because I understand the true loving care, and the commitment to looking after those things. But we don't have eyes on every single item within the holdings across the country 24 hours a day. And custodial care isn't about always having that 24/7 eyes on, but you definitely need to have that intellectual control. And that's statutory control of those documents.

So I think it's in the best place possible for this time. And nothing's ever permanent. So maybe it's another 25 years, or 50 years, or 100 years. I don't know. But for the moment, it is probably in the best place it can be in terms of its care. Not too bad in terms of its access, but who knows. I think it's up to other people now to be able to tell stories around it and create new stories, new discourse.

Visitor reactions to seeing Te Tiriti?

Audience member: Kia ora, Richard. It's a couple of quick memories. It's Tui here.

Kia ora. I was sitting beside my son, Nick, for a while who was part of the 2017 convoy. And he was so security conscious. He wouldn't even tell me, his mother, the timing so I could come down and watch.

Richard Foy: Very good.

Audience member: I know. He's gone back to work now. He's no longer in Archives. But thinking back to another memory in the late '90s, where I was part of a contract group working at Archives in the Air New Zealand building in Vivian Street. We had a-- there was a conservator there, a Canadian conservator called Pamela who once told the Māori staff there that the Treaty was going to be brought up from the Reserve Bank building.

But the powers that be don't want to see any hakas done over it. So I was wondering if you had any observations about how maybe non-Māori people who come to see the physical artifact, how they interact and respond to it, in general.

Richard Foy: This is probably a response to Tania, who has probably seen hundreds if not thousands of people go through the exhibition.

Tanja Schubert-McArthur: I can speak to that. And I've worked here as a learning facilitator for the last 4 and 1/2 years. So lots and lots of school groups, and adult groups coming through, and iwi groups. And each one of those groups, we invite to sing-- sing waiata or do karakia inside He Whakapapa Kōrero. And most groups actually take up the challenge and sing a waiata, or do a karakia, sometimes a haka.

And I see that as us taking care of the documents in a Te Ao Māori way that actually keeps them warm and allows people to have those emotional responses. Yeah, it's beautiful. And there are often tears. And people are very moved when that happens.

Richard Foy: I mean, I can say when we've hosted diplomats, and dignitaries, presidents, and whatever from overseas. And when we have done that outside the document room and then taken them through-- that it's making a real statement to those visitors that this is important to us, and it's important for these reasons.

And we tell them, at least, part of that story so they can understand why these documents are put in such a special space and well cared for. But yeah, more New Zealanders should have that experience, not just foreign people who have the gift of being shown a private tour.

Where the Treaty sheets ever on display overseas?

Tanja Schubert-McArthur: And one last question from online is: ‘Kia ora, Richard. Were the treaties ever on loan for overseas exhibitions before? Great presentation. Thank you.’

Richard Foy: No. They've never been on loan, not that I've ever heard.

They've never left.

Yeah, but that's the thing. There are periods of time where they were not really looked at. Who knows? But I very much doubt it because if they weren't cared for by us, then I can't imagine that anyone else would have been interested in them during that time. Yeah.

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