1860: Kohimarama Conference

July 9, 2021

By AHNZ

Today in New Zealand history, 10 July, 1860, the Treaty of Waitangi was ratified at the Kohimarama Conference in Auckland. Chiefs from all over New Zealand came to discuss and debate and reflect. How was this whole Colonisation thing working out anyway, these past 20 years?

The conference went on for a month and served to update and supersede the Treaty of Waitangi (1840.) Many, indeed, most, of the assembled 112 Maori leaders explicitly inserted into their speeches that they acknowledged British sovereignty over their nation and their satisfaction with it.

Conspicuously missing from the parliament were the chiefs of Waikato and Taranaki Maori. The former, because their King was ill and soon to die. The Taranaki were apparently in the midst of pandemic but they were also close to being in armed conflict with The State.

“‘Let this meeting be joined to the Treaty of Waitangi.’ Thus the proposal was incorporated in a major resolution passed unanimously at the final session: ‘That this Conference takes cognizance of the fact that the several Chiefs, members thereof, are pledged to each other to do nothing inconsistent with their declared recognition of the Queen’s sovereignty, and of the union of the two races,..” – MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF THE KOHIMARAMA CONFERENCE OF NATIVE CHIEFS, AJHR (1860); Papers Past

“On assuming the Sovereignty of New Zealand, Her Majesty extended to her Maori subjects her Royal protection, engaging to defend New Zealand and the Maori people from all aggressions by any foreign power, and imparting to them all the rights and privileges of British subjects; and she confirmed and guaranteed to the Chiefs and Tribes of New Zealand, and to the respective families and individuals thereof, the full, exclusive and undisturbed possession of their lands and estates, forests, fisheries, and other properties which they may collectively or individually possess, so long as it is their wish to retain the same in their possession.

“In return for these advantages the Chiefs who signed the Treaty of Waitangi ceded for themselves and their people to Her Majesty the Queen of England absolutely and without reservation all the rights and powers of Sovereignty which they collectively or individually passed or might be supposed to exercise or posse-s. 5. Her Majesty has instructed the Governors who preceded me, and she will instruct those who come after me, to maintain the stipulations of this Treaty inviolate, and to watch over the interests and promote the advancement of her subjects without distinction of Race.” – Gore Brown’s speech to the chiefs, ibid

“This was, indeed, the kind of endorsement that the government was seeking. Not only did the resolution settle doubts about the allegiance to the Crown obtained in 1840, but it also committed tribes, such as Arawa, who had not signed the treaty.48 Having gained thereby the unanimous assent of most of the major Maori tribes to the Queen’s sovereignty the government had cause to feel reasonably satisfied that the conference had served its main purpose.” – The Covenant of Kohimarama: A Ratification of the Treaty of Waitangi, Claudia Orange, New Zealand Journal of History (1980)

“The Treaty is right, but it came in the time of ignorance and was not understood…’But this [conference] is more like it; this is the real treaty upon which the sovereignty of the Queen will hang because here are assembled Chiefs from every quarter…” – Paora Tuhaere; Timespanner (2018)

“If you were looking for clarification on what the Treaty of Waitangi meant at the time, you’ve found it. Every main concept in the English version of the Treaty was re-stated in Maori, before a congress of Maori leaders- the biggest gathering of Maori leaders ever held to that point. If there was ever a time to should out “liar!”, this was it. If there was ever a time for Maori to say, “that’s not what we agreed to!”, this was it….absolute explicit agreement with the way the Governor had described the Treaty and what it meant, and pledged their allegiance to the Governor and Queen.” – Ian Wishart, The Great Divide (2012)

Kohimarama was a big deal but you’ll barely see it mentioned in the Government-sponsored history books. It’s one thing to believe that 1840 Maoris didn’t know what a Treaty really meant but it’s another to revisit the agreement 20 years later with hindsight and ratify it anew. This was done in 1860 and again, at Kohimarama, in 1868.

How do revisionist historians side-step the Kohi Conference and persist in the new fiction that Maoris are not equal citizens? That they are “citizens plus” with special race-based rights flies in the face of the Treaty and its subsequent re-visitations in conference. Firstly, the Kohi Conference is mostly passed over entirely. Secondly, if it is discussed at all, then the same ploy is used that works so well for the treaty. That is, it is said that there are differing interpretations simultaneously occurring. Two versions of the Treaty, two versions of the Conference. We are asked to accept that the Treaty was not really a Treaty and the Conference not really a conference. No meeting of minds, no understanding reached. Rather, two groups talking past each other saying and hearing what they wanted to hear but in the same place and time alongside one another for weeks at a time. This is the sort of baloney that our democracy is based on.

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Image ref. The venue, Melanesian Mission building; Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections (1986)

Update: Worth noting that the Kohi Conference was called on 10/July which is one day before the rival sovereign claim by the French on 11/July. Ref. 1772: France-Australe

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