The versions differ. The single English version, signed by only 39 rangatira (chief/chieftainess), was given precedence. Not every rangatira signed, but every Māori was adversely affected.
After guaranteeing Māori sovereignty and the retention of all goods/resources, the Treaty stipulates that should rangatira wish to sell land, they must sell to the Queen's agent.
Lieutenant-Governor Hobson issued a proclamation on January 15, 1840, prohibiting all further private purchases of land.
The Whanganui Regional Museum has in its collection a handwritten record by Reverend Richard Taylor on pale blue paper, which is extremely important to the Whanganui land story.
The document records a meeting in Whanganui on 29 May 1848, noting amounts handed to rangatira, to the value of £1000, on behalf of hapū as far as Taumarunui, Ngā Rauru and Ngāti Apa.
Previously mislabelled "Copy of the Sale of Whanganui", Taylor's document is illuminating.
Firstly, it is dated nine years after the New Zealand Company (NZC) claimed the legitimate purchase of Whanganui.
Secondly, Taylor wrote "compensation money", not "sale".
Thirdly, most hapū who reside within the "sale" area are missing from the list.
Fourthly, the compensation paid for the extensive 40,000 acres that had been taken, was a pittance.
The NZC sold more than 1000 land orders to prospective settlers and sailed them to Aotearoa before actually purchasing any land.
The document records monies paid to Whanganui iwi in exchange for land in 1848
Edward Jerningham Wakefield, son of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, one of the owners of the NZC, sailed from Wellington to Whanganui aboard the schooner SS Surprise to "complete the sale of Whanganui" for the NZC in May 1840.
As an agent for the NZC, at Pākaitore he delivered £700 worth of goods to iwi. The next day iwi gave Wakefield pigs and about 2000 baskets of potatoes as a return gift for his goods.
Wakefield quickly handed over some pipes, tobacco, blankets and fish hooks, later claiming he paid for the potatoes and pigs. This "sale" was four months after the proclamation by Hobson.
Whanganui iwi always disputed the NZC land purchase claim. Legal proceedings by iwi against the "sale" began almost immediately.
In 1842, Land Commissioner William Spain began investigating the validity of the NZC purchase. Iwi continued to work towards legal redress until the 2007 Treaty of Waitangi Tribunal hearings, 165 years later.
Captain Jock MacGregor, owner of SS Surprise who watched the "sale melee", as he called it, was one of many who testified in the 1842 inquiry.
He did not believe those gathered really knew what was going on and greatly doubted the £700 value placed upon the goods for "payment", which were not properly dispersed and of little value to the recipients.
He also testified that the generosity of the return gift from iwi was so much that his ship could not take all the produce and had to leave 17 pigs and some baskets of potatoes behind.
Despite evidence the sale was illegal, Spain determined that £1000 was sufficient compensation, as he wished to "do justice to both races, and Māori must allow the Europeans to take quiet possession of their land."
Some Māori said they did not want the money, and would keep their land. Spain replied: "Your refusal to accept payment will not prevent the European having the land. I have awarded it to them."
And so in 1848 when the NZ Government finally "persuaded" Whanganui rangatira to accept a payment of £1000 from the NZC to "compensate" for the 40,000 acres, Reverend Richard Taylor was there, writing on blue paper.
Somehow, the "sale" area had expanded to 86,200 acres, but the money had already been dispersed.
About 5450 acres were reserved for iwi, much less than the 10 per cent promised by the NZC. The company, furthermore, did not honour ownership all of the reserves. Pākaitore was one such.
In 1840, Māori owned almost all of the North Island. By 1892, because of numerous land alienating Acts, Māori owned little more than a third. Today, iwi are left with about 5 per cent of land in Aotearoa.
Next Waitangi Day, before dismissing the protesters' issues, or while planning a nice day out, take a minute or two to remember a short moment in history that this taonga, Reverend Taylor's paper, represents, and then think of all the other moments we have yet to learn about ourselves in Whanganui.
• Āwhina Twomey is Kaitiaki Taonga Māori and Kaiwhakaako Māori at Whanganui Regional Museum.
