The public history of settler colonialism: Michael Belgrave, ‘Colonialism Revisited Public History and New Zealand’s Waitangi Tribunal’, in David Dean (ed.), A Companion to Public History, Wiley, 2018, pp. 215-230 | settler colonial studies blog

The public history of settler colonialism: Michael Belgrave, ‘Colonialism Revisited Public History and New Zealand’s Waitangi Tribunal’, in David Dean (ed.), A Companion to Public History, Wiley, 2018, pp. 215-230

10Aug18

Abstract: Over the last three decades New Zealand has undertaken a comprehensive state‐sponsored review of the impact of colonisation on Māori, its indigenous population. This has been the country’s leaders exercise in public history, one where historians have worked both to provide evidence for the Waitangi Tribunal, a commission of enquiry which investigates claims against the crown, based on alleged breaches of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi. The Treaty of Waitangi gave legitimacy to British claims of sovereignty over New Zealand, but also made substantial promises to Māori tribes. Māori were guaranteed the right to retain their lands on other properties, as well as the right to retain their own tribal laws. Some Māori have even argued that the treaty did not transfer of sovereignty from tribes to the British Crown. As well as providing evidence and sitting on the Tribunal, historians have assisted in negotiating Treaty settlements, sometimes following a tribunal enquiry, on behalf of both Māori and the Crown. Waitangi history has become a highly specialised form of public history, prepared for quasi‐judicial judicial inquiries and as part of political negotiations. This chapter explores both the strengths and limitations of this form of history, where the historians inevitably support tribunal reports and negotiated settlements that are at times extremely can controversial.

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