The Treaties

Here, Emily Karaka uses the concept of sacrifice to explore three key agreements in New Zealand’s history.

Three panels each feature a crucified figure and one of the three deeds: the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi (New Zealand’s founding agreement between the Crown and Māori); the 1952 Anzus defence pact between Australia, New Zealand, and the US; and the 1977 Gleneagles Agreement opposing sporting contacts with apartheid-era South Africa. These three documents – ‘meant to protect’, as Emily Karaka has said – are torn, bloodied, destroyed. A ‘nuclear mother’ confronts us on the far left.

Echoed on each panel is the famous 1864 battle cry of Maniapoto leader Rewi Maniapoto, declared during the New Zealand Wars: ‘Ka whawhai tonu matou, ake, ake ake’ – We will fight against you for ever.