Treaty House name signifies importance of house on the hill

Saturday, 28 January 2023

Now known as the Treaty House, it was originally the home of British Resident James Busby from 1833 to 1840, at Waitangi.

People across Aotearoa flock to Waitangi to commemorate the signing of the nation’s founding documents every year. Across the Treaty Grounds, many buildings hold significance, but one home-turned-museum played a special part in bringing Māori and Pākehā together. So what is the Treaty House, and what role did it play in Te Tiriti o Waitangi? Pou Tiaki explains.

Read this story in te reo Māori and English here. / Pānuitia tēnei i te reo Māori me te reo Pākehā ki konei.

Where is the Treaty House?

The Treaty House, also known as the Busby house or the British Residency, sits on a hill on the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, overlooking the bay between Paihia and Russell in the Bay of Islands.

It’s a prefab colonial-style home that was sent over from Sydney during the 1830s, originally a one-bedroom with two more bedrooms later added.

Today it showcases the history of Waitangi as a museum, apt as inside the home and on the lawn in front, some of the most significant events in the history of Aotearoa took place.

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James Busby was New Zealand’s first British Resident, an official representative of the British government.

Why was the house built?

The house was built for James Busby, the official representative of the British government, and his family in 1834 in what is considered to be one of the first land confiscations.

There was a dispute over Busby’s right to occupy the land at Waitangi, as he had not dealt with those who held the customary rights to it. They enforced a muru on him, as is customary, and shots were fired in the process, Waitangi historian Bruce Stirling said.

“Busby basically said, ‘You have to give me some land as punishment for your offence’, so that was New Zealand’s first land confiscation.”

What important events took place there?

A modern reconstruction, showing Tamati Waka Nene signing the Treaty in front of James Busby, Captain William Hobson, and other British officials and witnesses. Some Maori signatories are assembled on the left. Oil on canvas, painted in 1938, by Marcus King (1891-1983).

It was in that house that the first flag of Aotearoa was designed.

Dubbed the flag of the United Tribes, the Old English style was chosen on March 20, 1834, by 25 rangatira from Te Tai Tokerau, as missionaries, settlers and naval commanders watched on.

Soon, Busby set to work again, drafting He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tirene, the Declaration of Independence of the United Tribes of New Zealand, from the house.

Signing it meant that Māori had their own sovereignty, something they wished to keep as more Pākehā arrived across the motu.

By 1840, Busby, Captain William Hobson and Reverend Henry Williams polished the Treaty of Waitangi, and translated it into Te Tiriti o Waitangi, which they presented to assembled rangatira on February 5, 1840.

Inside a tent made of sails pitched on Busby’s front lawn, more than 40 chiefs signed the Treaty, setting the foundation of the nation’s future.

What happened to it after Te Tiriti o Waitangi was signed?

Like Te Tiriti, the house was soon forgotten and became a shell of its former self, Stirling said.

“The Busby house was being used to store hay, and sheep were wandering through it at the time, in the 1910s, 1920s.”

The farmer who owned it then needed money due to the hardships of the 1920s, so he pitched a land sale, Stirling said.

“He offered the land to the Crown and said, ‘I think it’s kind of important. There was some treaty, something was signed here,’ but the Government wasn't interested.”

Like the physical documents of the Treaty and its promises, the Busby house was neglected, Stirling said.

But the centenary of Te Tiriti was on the horizon, and then governor-general Lord Bledisloe needed something of significance to tie the nation together, sparking a push to rename the home the Treaty House in 1933, and renovate it back to its former colonial glory.

“So in less than 10 years later, Bledisloe picks it up for a song at the mortgagee sale and gives it to the country,” Stirling said.

“Everyone thinks it's fantastic. Birthplace of the nation. In quite a short time they go from not caring about it at all, to saying it's central to our identity.”

What does the Treaty House represent today?

Jump ahead in time to 1989 and the house undergoes another renovation, just in time for the next phase of Aotearoa’s shift towards upholding Te Tiriti.

The Treaty House is now a museum, that faces Russell from a hill at Waitangi.

To Stirling, it’s a metaphor for how the Crown has treated Te Tiriti, neglected and now cherished.

“[The house] suffered the same sort of neglect because our history was neglected. Now, it's not.”