Samuel D Carpenter

Tag: New Zealand history

  • Do we need the English text of the treaty too?

    An imagined conversation: Yes, we need the English text, because the Māori text came from the English text… Hang on, the English text says Māori ceded sovereignty – but they didn’t! This confuses people visiting Te Papa museum. They didn’t cede their hapū rangatiratanga, yes, but they ceded to the Crown the kāwanantanga (government) of…

  • From the Archives, no. 6

    Research at Alexander Turnbull Library (Wellington) last week delivered some remarkable documents and taonga, including this whakapapa showing descent from Hoturua (leader of the Tainui waka) and baptism registers revealing some significant rangatira names of Te Atiawa, Ngāti Raukawa and other hapū. The whakapapa was literally inside the back cover of a Church Register, and…

  • News commentary on ‘leaked treaty principles bill advice’

    I gave a pre-recorded interview to a Newstalk ZB journalist last Friday; extracts were included in two news bulletins on Saturday 20 January 2024. They captured probably my main point: that the proposed bill’s reading of article 2 of te Tiriti/the Treaty as a guarantee of chieftainship for all New Zealanders departs from the meaning…

  • From the Archives, no. 5 –

    Memorial to Henry Williams from the Māori Church, 1876. As I’m nearing the end of a draft of a new biography of Henry Williams, I’m reading some fascinating newspaper material on the final period of his life and the memorials to him that came afterwards. The two main ones were the new Trinity Church at…

  • Te Whānau Wiremu ki Aotearoa: How the Williams’ story has shaped Christianity, Culture, and Nation in Aotearoa, New Zealand

    Just published in Stimulus: The New Zealand Journal of Christian Thought and Practice, vol. 30, no. 1, 2023: Te Whānau Wiremu ki Aotearoa: How the Williams’ story… This article is a slightly abbreviated version of my talk at the Williams family 200-year reunion, which took place at Waitangi in April this year (2023). (The reunion…

  • Op-Ed: understanding “the Doctrine of Discovery” in context

    I was recently asked to contribute an opinion piece on the recent discourse surrounding “the Doctrine of Discovery”. I attempted to locate the “doctrine” in context by explaining what it was (and what it wasn’t). I argued that it has little direct relevance to New Zealand history, while also acknowledging that an assertion of sovereignty…

  • From the Archives, no. 4: early printed versions of He Wakaputanga 1835 and Te Tiriti 1840 – printed at the Paihia mission press

    I came across these in my files this week and just thought I would post them here: first, because they are beautifully clear printing efforts by William Colenso (in 1836) and John Telford (in 1845) on the Paihia mission press; and second, because they are reminders of how interwoven the story of these documents are…

  • Can te Tiriti-the Treaty be reconciled? A review of Ned Fletcher’s The English Text of the Treaty of Waitangi – by S. Carpenter

    Just published in the last week or so: Samuel Carpenter, ‘Review of The English Text of the Treaty of Waitangi, by Ned Fletcher. Bridget Williams Books, 2022′, in New Zealand Journal of History 57/1 (2023): 93-94.

  • from the lecture room #2

    Below is a second lecture segment that highlights two of the most significant Māori political speeches and correspondence of the mid-nineteenth century: Rēnata Kawepō’s critique of the Waitara transaction, and Wiremu Tamehana’s defence of the Kīngitanga. (Another segment from my lecture series at Laidlaw College for the level 600 and 700 paper Te Harinui: Christianity…

  • treaty stories #2

    This is the second in a series of conversations with a few old friends and colleagues in the treaty sector to raise awareness of the kinds of issues, challenges and opportunities faced in that world. And really just to shine some light (māramatanga) on what goes on “on the inside” of the process – whether…