Kōkiri Learn

Background reading · Social Sciences

From the Land March to Treaty settlements

How petitions, a long march and a new tribunal changed the way Aotearoa deals with broken promises.

By the 1970s, Māori owned only a small part of the land they had held in 1840, and fewer children were growing up speaking te reo Māori. A new generation decided to be heard.

The language petition, 1972

The group Ngā Tamatoa and the Te Reo Māori Society collected more than 30,000 signatures asking for te reo Māori to be taught in schools. They delivered the petition to Parliament on 14 September 1972. It led to Māori Language Day, which grew into Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, Māori Language Week.

The Land March, 1975

On 14 September 1975, marchers set out from Te Hāpua in the far north. They were led by Whina Cooper, who was 79. Their message was 'Not one more acre of Māori land'. They walked about 1,000 km, staying at marae along the way. When they reached Parliament on 13 October, about 5,000 people handed over a Memorial of Rights signed by some 60,000 people.

New ways to put things right

  • Waitangi Tribunal: set up in 1975 to hear claims that the Crown had broken te Tiriti. From 1985 it could hear claims going back to 1840.
  • Kōhanga reo: from 1982, whānau set up language nests where babies and young children grew up speaking te reo Māori.
  • Treaty settlement: an agreement, passed as a law by Parliament, in which the Crown apologises to an iwi and returns some land, money or special rights.

    • Settlements today

    Waikato-Tainui settled in 1995, Ngāi Tahu in 1998, and in 2017 the Whanganui iwi settlement recognised the Whanganui River as a legal person. Settlements are usually worth only a small part of what was lost, but many iwi have used them to build homes, businesses and scholarships. Some claims are still being negotiated.

    Sources and further reading

    Written for Kōkiri Learn students in our own words. Check facts against the sources.

    Used in: Mana Motuhake: Power, Decisions and People