The Centennial and the Treaty of Waitangi - The New Zealand Centennial, 1940

• NZ Centennial, 1940
• Centennial Exhibition
• Playland
• The Centennial and Progress
• The Centennial and the Treaty of Waitangi
• Image and Media Gallery
  View all images, sound, and films in this feature

The Centennial and Maori

The National Centennial Committee saw the New Zealand Centennial in 1940 as an opportunity for the country to take stock of itself, focusing particularly on issues of history and identity. But not everyone bought into, or was even aware of, the big ideas of the Centennial. Many people went to the Centennial Exhibition primarily for the fun of Playland rather than the more serious displays.

But what was the Centennial about?

When the Centennial Bill was introduced into Parliament in 1938, the MP for Stratford declared that it provided for the celebration 'of one hundred years of progress in this wonderful Dominion....the history of those hundred years is amazing, and one which has never been outshone in any other country. Ours is one of the brightest gems in the Pacific: a real pacific haven away from the troubles of a distracted older world.'

This 'one hundred years of progress' was clearly the celebration of European progress in New Zealand; the Labour government used the opportunity to proclaim and reinforce a national value system. Despite all the talk of the 'birth of a nation', the place of the Treaty of Waitangi or Maori in these celebrations was less obvious.

Heavily directed by the National Centennial Committee, the key Maori contribution to the Centennial centred around the completion of the Whare Rununga on the Waitangi Estate. This was to be a celebration of Maori integration into modern New Zealand. The fact that Maori were 'loyally working to the end of having the Whare Rununga on the Waitangi Estate completed in time for 1940', commented Minister of Internal Affairs William Parry in 1936, 'shows that to them the centennial will be no occasion for mourning an alien conquest, but an occasion for rejoicing.'

Many Europeans saw the Whare Rununga as complementing the Treaty House; together jointly symbolised the apparent strength of New Zealand's race relations. The previous Governor-General, Lord Bledisloe, had seen the Maori decision to build the whare as their testimony to the sincerity of British honour and integrity, but in fact Maori saw it as a reminder to Pakeha that the agreement they had entered into had not been honoured.

Protest at Waitangi

In 1940 many Pakeha shared the views of Parry and Bledisloe. Many Maori, however, including leaders such as Te Puea and the Maori King, Koroki, boycotted the 1940 Waitangi commemorations because of the raupatu, or land confiscations of the nineteenth century, which had not been settled. The celebrations were, one Waikato leader said, but 'an occasion for rejoicing on the part of the pakehas and those tribes who have not suffered any injustices during the past 100 years'.

Nga Puhi attended the 1940 ceremony, but displayed red blankets in protest at the compulsory acquisition of what had been deemed 'surplus lands' in Northland. As Sir Apirana Ngata reflected - many Pakeha considered him as a Maori voice of reason and evidence of Maori progress, 'I do not know of any year the Maori people have approached with so much misgiving as this Centennial Year... In retrospect what does the Maori see? Lands gone, the power of chiefs humbled in the dust, Maori culture scattered and broken.'

The protests were largely ignored. Only the positive aspects of Ngata's speech had much interest to the press. For most Pakeha the Treaty was not about obligations not met, but the vehicle for British settlement and government. Cheviot Bell, president of the New Zealand Founders' Society, chose Waitangi Day 1940 to declare that 'What we seek to mark today is the free entry one hundred years ago of the Maori race into the great privilege of membership of the Commonwealth of peoples that we are proud to call the British Empire.' Maori, it seemed, should be grateful, and not dampen Pakeha self congratulation.

Official response was equally clear. Speaking at the official ceremony at Waitangi, Governor-General Lord Galway advised Maori to 'look to the sun and the shadows will fall behind you by way of acknowledging the need to move forward together'. Acting Prime Minister, Peter Fraser also maintained that now was not the time for brooding over ancient wrongs. 'It is more sensible and efficient to try to put them right, and endeavours are repeatedly made to that end. At the close of 100 years we see signs of great progress.'

The tone of centennial year celebrations was to reinforce the sense of pride in the success of the country's race relations. The Treaty, in the words of Prime Minister Michael Savage, symbolised friendship and the desire of two widely different races to live together in peace. Great effort was made to avoid reference to racial conflict. A proposed centennial survey volume on war was rejected principally because it was not possible to undertake without reference to the New Zealand Wars, and James Cowan's discussion of the Waikato War was cut from the volume on Settlers and Pioneers for the same reason.

Representations of Maori in the centenary celebrations

Overall, three main representations of Maori were employed during the Centennial, all of which supported the theme of progress and the success of European colonisation of New Zealand.

First, the romanticised 'Old-time Maori' was used to give some sense of tradition and mystery to New Zealand's otherwise short history. This ploy was especially marked in the pictorial survey Making New Zealand, the sole issue about Maori was confined to pre-European Maori. At worst, Maori culture was employed in a principally decorative sense, highlighting the superficial character of Pakeha attitudes to Maori culture.

The second theme presented Maori as great explorers, pioneers in their own right, and supposedly giving them kinship with their Anglo-Saxon countrymen, while also validating European colonisation as simply a second wave.

The third and most significant theme explained the progress of Maori from a Stone Age people to modern New Zealanders. This view presented the Treaty and European colonisation as the saviour of Maori, rescuing them from destructive tribal warfare, uniting them and restoring their population through the introduction of European 'civilisation' and 'fair and equitable treatment' by early administrators. Pakeha, not Maori, could claim responsibility for Maori recovery and progress.

Maori were expected to participate in the Centennial on European terms. While the signing of the Treaty was made a national celebration, it was mostly a Pakeha affair. So too were the Waitangi celebrations, with Maori guests limited to 500 people and their role confined largely to entertainment.

Months before, Ngata had complained that 'the centennial year looked easy for the Maori, who could join in national singing the national anthem, but the spectacle of whole tribes stripping for the haka as their ancestors had done seemed to be deprecated', joking that, 'the only way to show the progress of the Maori in the century was to provide a place at the exhibition where the influence of civilization could be shown by the spectacle of gentlemen in plus fours with a bag of iron sticks going out to fool around acres of grass paddocks'.