Treaty of Waitangi Exhibit, Te Papa Tongarewa Museum

COMMUNITY / CIVIC

• PROJECT

  Treaty of Waitangi Exhibit

• CLIENT

  New Zealand Government

• LOCATION

  Wellington

• STATUS

  Completed

 This important exhibit addresses the ‘founding document’ of New Zealand, and is located in the heart of the museum.

Pete Bossley was invited to work with Paul Thompson and Haniko Te Kurapa to design of the exhibit located at the heart of the Museum of NZ Te Papa Tongarewa.

Te Papa Tongarewa the Museum of NZ The Treaty has had a chequered career, and the exhibit attempts to highlight the positive and the negative aspect of its influence. Large panels each side exhibit the three main paragraphs in Te Reo and in English, and identifies the different interpretations that have created problems over the years. Approach to the space is though a series of posts, or pou, from which stories quietly emanate, telling of individual histories from people affected positively or negatively by the impact of the Treaty.

At the rear of the main space is a dramatic glass casting of the Treaty document, demonstrating the signatures on the goatskin as it exists today and also showing the signatures that were on the original before it was damaged and partially eroded.