DNA test confirms blank parchment is part of Treaty of Waitangi

Monday, 4 February 2019

DNA testing has proved that this blank piece of parchment is a part of the Treaty of Waitangi.

As Waitangi Day fast approaches, a new piece of the founding document has been confirmed - but there's nothing on it.

A DNA test has confirmed a blank piece of parchment found in 1929 was part of the Treaty of Waitangi.

While the document piece has no words on it, it's hoped it can say a lot about how best to preserve the nation's founding document in the future.

A Te Papa scientist working with Archives New Zealand and the National Library genetically analysed the parchment, which was made with prepared animal skin.

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It was found to share the same genetic composition as the lower part of the Treaty.

The parchment had been found in 1929 in an envelope marked, '1865, Treaty of Waitangi Blank Portion of the Original Skin' among the papers of Walter Baldock Durrant Mantell, who was Native Affairs Minister in the 1860s. It had been donated to the Alexander Turnbull Library.

'We were frustrated at the lack of early information about the condition of the Treaty documents, and were unable to fully evaluate the document to ensure its safe and ongoing preservation requirements' National Library collection care leader Peter Whitehead said.

The analysis of the blank parchment was part of ongoing preservation research of constitutional documents that were housed at the He Tohu exhibition at the National Library.

Archives New Zealand conservator Anna Whitehead said it hadn't previously been possible to verify the blank document's significance.

'We had thoroughly examined the blank piece of parchment but weren't able to guarantee its origin on our own, hence asking Lara Shepherd, an evolutionary biologist at Te Papa to help with DNA testing.'

The findings, co-authored by Peter Whitehead, Anna Whitehead and Shepherd, had been published in scientific journal PLOS ONE.

The research had also found the parchment had been made from a female sheep.

The blank piece could now be used as a control to see how the events of the past 150 years, including the exposure from long-term display, had impacted the preservation of the main Treaty document.

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