I am pleased to share the news that a new edition of The Treaty of Waitangi Companion will be published by Bridget Williams Books this November. To pre-order the book or learn more visit the book page here. 

The first edition of the Treaty of Waitangi Companion, published by Auckland University Press in 2010, has been out of print for some years now. The new edition is fully updated and revised, including colour illustrations throughout. 

A new final chapter includes coverage of significant events since 2010, including among other topics the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011 and subsequent developments, the Ōtorohanga College petition and the push to teach Aotearoa New Zealand history in schools, Ihumātao, and the Treaty Principles Bill and the huge public response it generated. 

We acknowledge with gratitude Wally Penetito, former Professor of Māori Education at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, who was with us for the first edition back in 2010 but since retired and happy to see us push on with a new edition. He mihi nui ki te rangatira Wally. 

The book features a new introduction from lawyer and legal scholar Natalie Coates that captures brilliantly what the work strives to achieve:  

This book does not attempt to resolve the many interpretations or perspectives that have grown up around Te Tiriti. Instead, it places before the reader a wide range of voices – Māori and Pākehā, official and personal, historical and more recent – through which the agreement has been understood, contested and lived. These voices do not speak in unison. They reflect disagreement, frustration, assertion and at times profound misunderstanding. They reveal how far practice has often diverged from promise.

There is also a new cover featuring photographer Te Rawhitiroa Bosch’s stunning aerial image of the waka fleet at Waitangi on 6 February 2025, the paddlers about to perform a haka on the foreshore before heading out to sea, watched on by a large crowd. 

Te Tiriti is a lens through which the work explores the wider history of Māori and non-Māori encounters and interactions over time. As the book blurb notes:

Weaving together voices, documents and images from centuries of cooperation, conflict and change, The Treaty of Waitangi Companion ranges from first contact between Māori and Europeans to today’s debates over the place of te Tiriti o Waitangi in our constitutional arrangements. 

Rather than offering a single narrative, Vincent O’Malley and Bruce Stirling bring readers close to the historical record itself. They draw on the words of key figures, from William Hobson and Hōne Heke to Dame Whina Cooper, Sir Edward Taihakurei Durie and Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke. These voices trace the story from te Tiriti’s signing in 1840 through war and land loss, Māori renaissance and Waitangi Tribunal inquiries, and on to the debates that continue to shape Aotearoa today.

We look forward to sharing the new edition with readers in November.