Waitangi Day at He Tohu – ‘Walking backwards into the Future’

The Team from Alexander Turnbull Library

Date: Thursday, 6 February, 2020
Time: 9am to 5pm. He Tohu tours will run every half hour from 9:30am. Tours are 20 mins long. Last tour at 4pm. Bilingual tours at 11am and 2pm.
Cost: Free event.
Location: Te Ahumairangi (ground floor), National Library, corner Molesworth and Aitken Streets, Thorndon

‘Walking backwards into the future’

‘Walking backwards into the future’ — is an expression that asks us to use our experiences to build a positive future. Bring the family to the National Library on Waitangi Day and see the Treaty of Waitangi. Learn about New Zealand's constitutional past to help you imagine the future.

‘Walking backwards into the future’ encourages us to look at where we’ve come from and the journey that still lies ahead. It asks that we use our experiences to build a positive future.

Celebrate Waitangi Day at He Tohu

Waitangi Day at He Tohu is an opportunity for you and your whānau to see the Treaty of Waitangi. Activities will include:
•whānau and bilingual He Tohu tours
• a reading corner with books/ comics and other Treaty resources
• film from Nga Taonga Sound and Vision, and
• a kids’ craft table with Treaty-related activities to help the new generation walk backwards into the future.

He Tohu tours will run every half hour from 9:30am. Tours are 20 mins long. Last tour at 4pm. Bilingual tours at 11am and 2pm.

Storytelling with acclaimed storyteller Apirana Taylor

In between the two bilingual tours of He Tohu, acclaimed storyteller Apirana Taylor will delight audiences of all ages with two story sessions.

Wellington City Libraries will host the two sessions at He Matapihi on the Ground Floor of the Library. Each session will last (around) 40 minutes.
Apirana will tell the following stories:
•11.30am — 'Talking flutes: stories for the young'
• 1.00pm — 'Pūrākau: children’s stories by Apirana Taylor'

See the Treaty of Waitangi

The Treaty of Waitangi is not a single large sheet of paper but a group of nine documents: seven on paper and two on parchment. Together they represent an agreement drawn up between representatives of the British Crown on the one hand and representatives of Māori iwi and hapū on the other.

Te Tiriti o Waitangi is named after the place in the Bay of Islands where it was first signed on 6 February 1840, but it was also signed in a number of other locations around the country in the following months.

See all nine sheets when you visit the He Tohu exhibition. Get a head start and have a look at the Archives New Zealand online exhibition about the Treaty of Waitangi.