What is Tangata Tiriti – Treaty People?

Tangata Tiriti – Treaty People is an education programme on Te Tiriti o Waitangi: the Treaty of Waitangi. Its key aim is to build relationships between tangata tiriti – people of the Treaty (non-Māori), and tangata whenua – people of the land (Māori).

Aims of the Tangata Tiriti – Treaty People progamme

To provide simple, accurate information about the Treaty of Waitangi.

To address the need for new and ‘older’ settlers to be educated on the Treaty of Waitangi.

To introduce new migrants to Aotearoa/New Zealand to contemporary debate about Treaty and constitutional issues in order to help them reflect on their place in this debate.

What do we do?

Our main activities are to:

  1. Share educational resources about the Treaty of Waitangi
    • Tangata Tiriti – Treaty People interactive workbook about the Treaty of Waitangi – in plain English
    • Easy Read book about the Treaty of Waitangi – in Easy Read format
    • Translations into many languages of our educational resources
  2. Run Treaty of Waitangi education workshops for organisations and community groups throughout the country, with a special focus on new migrants.
  3. Run Facilitator Training programmes to train educators with Tangata Tiriti – Treaty People resources.

Who are we?

We are an incorporated society Tangata Tiriti – Treaty People, with charitable status. We have a committee made up of volunteers from Treaty education, community organisations and/or migrant backgrounds.

The following organisations also have representatives on our committee:

  • Belong Aotearoa (formerly Auckland Regional Migrant Services)
  • Asians Supporting Tino Rangatiratanga
  • Earth Action Trust
  • Te Mana Consultancy
  • Waikato Arab Social Club
  • Kind Mind Kai

Our committee meets four times a year.