You Have One Night to Choose the Words
A candle. A draft in English written by men who do not speak Māori well. Beside you, your son Edward. By morning this must exist in te reo Māori — and every word you pick will be argued about for the next two centuries.
Henry Williams and his son had roughly one evening. English legal words like sovereignty had no equal in te reo Māori, so they had to reach for the nearest thing. Try it yourself: pick a word, then look at what each side would hear.
What the rangatira hear
What the Crown hears
The Day of Speeches
You are standing at the edge of the tent. The sun is fierce — the missionary William Colenso is writing everything down, and his notebook is the reason you can hear these voices at all.
Tap a rangatira to hear what they said, as Colenso recorded it. Watch the mood of the assembly move as the day goes on — for hours it ran strongly against the Governor.
Forty Marks, Then Five Hundred More
The signing was meant to happen on the 7th. People were hungry, food had run low, and by mid-morning on the 6th the rangatira wanted it done. Hōne Heke of Ngāpuhi came forward first.
Drag the Century and Watch the Land Move
Article Two promised te tino rangatiratanga — full chiefly authority — over lands, villages and treasures. Here is what happened to the land of the North Island in the years that followed. Each speck is a parcel; gold means still in Māori ownership.
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The Argument Is the Point
This is not a settled story with one answer at the back of the book. Here are four things scholars genuinely disagree about — notice that "we don't know for certain" is a real historical answer.
Seven Questions from the Lawn
No trick questions. Wrong answers are fun too.