
Waitangi Day marks the anniversary of the founding agreement between Pākeha and Māori to build a nation together. As we enjoy a day off in the sun, we've also been thinking about what the day means here at Britomart, 200km away from the annual commemorations in the Bay of Islands and 185 years after those first signatures were recorded.
At the time Te Tiriti was first being signed, Auckland was little more than a collection of tents and small trading outposts.
The first wooden house would not be built until 1841 (Acacia Cottage, originally on Shortland Street, which was at the time the foreshore, but since moved to Cornwall Park), and the earliest wooden pier, stretching across sandy Mechanics Bay into deeper water, was still 11 years away from construction. Remnants of abandoned Māori pas were scattered across the volcanic landscape; Te Waihorotiu stream carved down the gully that would eventually become Queen Street. Illustration of Auckland from Smales Point above drawn by Patrick Hogan, 1852. Lith. by Standidge & Co., Old Jewry [London, 1852]. Alexander Turnbull Library.

The Ngāti Whātua chief Āpihai Te Kawau (above) was renowned as a warrior who had fought in battles from Northland to the Wairarapa. He had signed Te Tiriti in late March 1840 at a meeting on the Manukau Harbour, possibly at Awhitū, and formed a friendship with the Reverend Samuel Marsden, who established the first permanent colony of European settlers in the Bay of Islands over 20 years earlier. Te Kawau could see the potential of forging close relationships with the new European settlers and the church.
Te Kawau decided to make a tuku (strategic gift) of 3,500 acres of land in the central Auckland isthmus to the British Crown. The land allowed the burgeoning port village to become New Zealand's new capital city, taking the title from the original capital, Russell. Te Kawau may also have thought that strengthening the relationship of his iwi to the Crown could provide strategic advantages in the future.
That gift of land made Auckland – and Britomart – possible. After Lieutenant-Governor William Hobson raised the British flag above Te Rerenga Ora Iti (Point Britomart) on 18 September 1840, the village began to rapidly transform. Settlers began to arrive by the boatload the following year, wooden and stone buildings rose along the main roads and harbour reclamation started within a decade. Illustration by by J. S. Allan of Āpihai Te Kawau of Ōrākei printed in John White's 'Ancient History of the Maori', based on an image in The New Zealanders illustrated by George French Angas, published in 1847. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections JTD-18-02378.

Although Auckland's status as capital ended in 1865, by the early 1880s some of the brick warehouses that still stand at Britomart were conducting a busy trade at the fast-expanding port. Auckland's population was heading towards 50,000 people and the city was on its way.
For Te Kawau, the decades that followed the signing of Te Tiriti and his gift of land to the Crown brought significant change too. In the 1840s he was baptised as a Christian and given the name Āpihai, a Maori transliteration of the Biblical name Abishai. As the 1840s became the 1850s, he came to oppose land sales, and petitioned Governor George Grey to protect Ngāti Whātua's remaining land-holdings in Orakei. In 1858, he secured a certificate of title to 700 acres at Ōrākei, from the Native Land Court, although the land was seized by the Crown a century later and not returned to the hapū until 1998, after a long period of occupation and passive resistance at Bastion Point. Photograph of Auckland wharves circa 1886 by Burton Brothers. Te Papa, C010254.

Tomorrow night, as the sun sets, Auckland's Harbour Bridge will light up with a Waitangi-themed show designed by Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, in collaboration with Mandylights. The show celebrates the many tūpuna gone before – including Te Kawau – who laid a strong foundation for their descendants, creating a legacy and everlasting connection to their whenua, their moana and each other. The accompanying waiata, Maunga, written by siblings Majic Pāora and Robbie Pāora, can be listened to live at vector.co.nz/lights.
The show will repeat every 15 minutes from 9pm until midnight, so if you're looking for a way to celebrate Waitangi Day here in Auckland, gather the whanau and come watch it from the waterfront. And if you're walking down Quay Street, you can visit Te Toko o Āpihai Te Kawau (it's found just across the road from Les Mills gym), a memorial that acknowledges the story of the founding of this city.