What did the Treaty of Waitangi say?

In social studies, we had to read the Maori version of the treaty of Waitangi and the English version and then compare both versions to find the key differences.

Article 1:

Key differences: The English version says that the European have complete control over everything in NZ whereas the Maori version says that the European only have control of the land and not the people.

Perspectives causing conflicts: Maori could feel cheated. Europeans could feel like the Maori are disobeying them.

Article 2:

Key differences: The British one states the Maori can only sell land to them whereas the Maori one says that if they offer land to the British and they refuse they can then sell it to anyone.


Perspectives causing conflicts: Maori could sell land to a non-british person & the Europeans could get mad.

Article 3:

Key differences: There are no major differences


Perspectives causing conflicts: The Maori may not get treated the same as the British like it states will happen in the treaty.

Why the Treaty of Waitangi was needed

In Social Studies we had to complete an essay on why the Treaty of Waitangi was needed. We had to write a paragraph about missionaries, musket wars, lawlessness and the Declaration of Independence and explain why they contributed to why the treaty was needed from the information we had accumulated over the past few weeks of looking at this topic. Here is my essay: 

Historians debate that comprehending the reasoning behind historical events is far more essential than remembering the specific details. In 1840, Maori and Europeans signed the Treaty of Waitangi. The Treaty of Waitangi was needed to establish laws and boundaries between Maori and Europeans. A written agreement between these parties was required for numerous reasons. Though the treaty was signed in the past it is still important to today’s culture. 

New Zealand’s lawlessness in the 1830s was a key factor in why the Treaty of Waitangi was signed. European whalers used to stop in Russell after long trips on their boats. Once on land, the European whalers would make poor decisions affecting the welfare of New Zealand and it quickly led to Russell earning the name ‘the Hellhole of the Pacific’. The whalers inadequate behaviour wouldn’t have stopped if actions weren’t taken to prevent these issues. Fortunately, the treaty allowed for these problems to be resolved. Obsessive drinking from the whalers leads to fighting, disease and prostitution between the Europeans and the indigenous women of New Zealand. The lack of laws provided a much-needed excuse for the treaty as it allowed them to enforce new standards of behaviours. 

Missionaries went out of their way to protect Maori rights and earn their trust and respect. The Maori decision to sign the Treaty of Waitangi was heavily influenced by the missionaries who did everything they could to help them. Maori were taught how to read and write in their native language, Te Reo Maori, due to the missionaries that we’re able to teach them what they knew. After concerns about the impact large land sales had on the Maori, the European missionaries purchased land for them in an effort to help the Maori keep the land that was rightfully theirs. Missionaries were also anxious apart the alarming numbers of Maori being killed or enslaved because of the musket wars leading them to do whatever they were able to do to fuse the situation. The reasons above prove how the missionaries did everything in their power to make sure the Maori rights were protected, ultimately leading in the signing of the treaty. 

Between 1807-1842 over 20,000 Maori lost their lives due to musket wars. Tribes without muskets were forced to trade large amounts of food and flax for muskets just to have a chance at surviving. Tribal boundaries changed dramatically because muskets fights became a common way to obtain more land. After muskets were introduced to New Zealand a number of wars broke out, killing thousands. Fatal incidents and huge loss of land became regular due to these wars. The introduction of muskets created great havoc and caused violence as laws were not in place to prevent the trading of muskets, making the Treaty of Waitangi all the more necessary to avoid situations like the muskets wars for happening again. 

Surely there must have been something in place before the Treaty of Waitangi, right? Intriguingly, just 5 years prior to the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, 34 Maori chiefs signed the Declaration of Independence. The signing of the Declaration meant that chiefs would annually meet to discuss problems and establish laws boundaries, a copy of the flag would be sent to the king so New Zealand could trade with other countries and that the Maori would have complete independence over their country. Unfortunately, there were many negative consequences that occurred due to this signing. Tribes soon broke out into warfare causing chiefs to not meet. Despite complete mana and sovereignty remaining with the Maori, they could only trade with the British. The Treaty of Waitangi was needed in place of the Declaration of Independence to ensure laws and agreements were established to protect the land and people of New Zealand.

This essay has provided valuable reasons as to why the Treaty of Waitangi was needed. Lawlessness, missionaries, musket wars and the Declaration of Independence were all major impacts into why the Treaty of Waitangi was essential to New Zealand. We are able to gather that New Zeland was not in good condition before the treaty as no boundaries had to be set in place leading to many negative consequences such as disease, wars, murders, and having no rights. A treaty was an obvious solution to the issues that used to occur in New Zealand.

Maori Gods - Social Studies

In Social Studies we have been learning about Maori Gods. we had to make a posters of one of the Maori God. The poster above is mine. I think it is interesting that many cultures have different Gods to explain natural causes. It is cool that although cultures can live on completely different parts of the world they all seem to have similar stories explaining the cause of things.

Social Studies - Pyramids and Conspiracies

In Social Studies we are learning about how Egyptians made pyramids. So far we have learned about how the Pyramids were actually built by paid labourers and not slaves. The paid workers also got the honour of being buried in the pyramids. We had to write a couple of paragraphs about something to do with the pyramids. I decided to look into two conspiracies people have about the pyramids. Although I personally do not believe in these conspiracies I thought it would be fun to look into why people believe them. Here are my paragraphs:

With today's technology, we would not be able to replicate the Pyramid of Giza. Due to technology being lost it would be nearly impossible to remake the pyramids, because of this some people believe that aliens built the pyramids instead. The pyramids are a huge structure and still cause scientist and archaeologist confusion when it comes to how Egyptians made them as they struggle to see how they successfully made dozens of pyramids to stand without falling, be symmetrical and how they got the heavy stone up the pyramid. Some people believe that ramps were used to carry the stones up the pyramids (there are actually traces of where the ramp used to be)  while others believe that aliens used their advanced technology to lift it and place it in the perfect position. People think this as the limestone used is very heavy and would be a struggle to pull to the top of a 138m structure. Other than getting the limestone up to pyramid it would have been hard to achieve a perfect position easily. The Pyramid of Giza is in a position where the corners of the pyramid face the northeast and north-west perfectly, it also is aligned with the magnetic north which would have been hard to complete on their own, because of this it is thought that the pyramid wad levitated above the ground to then be put in a perfect position. Although Egyptians may do this on their own, without some supernatural levitation, some people are not able to see that the Egyptians could've accomplished this as it would've been extremely difficult to align these perfectly. It is thought that the pyramids were built with technology far more advanced with what the Egyptians had access to, therefore aliens are suspected to be the creature that built them.

If you are unable to see how aliens constructed the pyramids then maybe the idea that someone travelled from the future to build it instead. Even though I don't fully understand this conspiracy I thought it was interesting and decided to write what I know about it. This conspiracy isn't is popular and isn't very known but it is backed up by Stephen Hawking so like it's not that insane or impossible to believe. I found out this conspiracy after doing a lot of research and I think that the first one to publicly state this conspiracy was Scarlett Moffat when was on a British tv show called 'Im a Celebrity'. Scarlett said "in order to travel back in time, we have to go faster than light. The speed of light is the same latitude point as the tip of the great pyramid. The speed of light is like 319 and then loads of numbers, it’s exactly the same latitude point as the tip of the Great Pyramid. So I think someone from the future realized we’d need the pyramids and went back in time and built them.” Although I don't quite understand this statement I think it basically suggests that the pyramids were discovered to relate to the speed of light and were found to be a crucial part to how time works or are discovered or something so someone timetraveled back to the past to build them. People believe this conspiracy because someone time traveling is easier to comprehend than aliens and someone from the future may end up with technology just as (or more) advanced than the technology aliens are thought to have. Personally, I think that it is more believable that someone from the future built the pyramids compared to aliens as I don't really think aliens are real and because time travel doesn't seem impossible in this world.



 

Social Studies - Addictions to Phones

In social studies, we had to write a paragraph on whether students were addicted to their phones or not. Here is the paragraph I did:

It is impossible to tell if a student is addicted to their phone or not. Whether someone is addicted to their phone depends on who the person is as everyone lives a different life. Although not all students are addicted, those who are could deal with more negative impacts than those who aren’t. A few examples of the negative consequences of using your phone to often include having issues socialising and exercising and your eyesight worsening. These consequences are issues as it affects the health of a student. Even though addictions to a device are not uncommon and are becoming more frequent among teens, I believe it is unfair to assume someone is addicted.

Social Studies - Technology

In Social Studies we have been learning about technology. We had to make a presentation of 20 examples of how technology has changed over the years. Here is the presentation Jordan and I completed:

Making Boomerangs - Social Studies

In Social Studies we have been studying aboriginal artwork and the use of boomerangs. As apart of our work we had to paint a boomerang using the aboriginal style we have been learning about. On my boomerang, I used brown, white and a pinky-red as my colors. I used these colours as they are common colours used. Natural colours are often used in aboriginal artwork as products such as clay and charcoal were used instead of paint. Something that worked well while painting my boomerang was that the background colours turned out well. Next time I would probably have a better of a plan of what I am painting as I changed it halfway through. My boomerang was supposed to have squiggly lines dotted, representing snakes but the lines were harder to draw with the resources I had and turned out too big. Instead, I just drew lines on as I thought it would turn out better. Because I drew straight lines instead of squiggly lines the meaning of my boomerang couldn't be snakes, so after some research, I discovered that thing symbol closest to what my final product turned out to be was rain, so I guess that's what the meaning behind my boomerang is. I thought that making a boomerang to show our learning was fun as we often aren't able to do things like that. Here is the boomerang I created:

Creative Wrting :/

London isn't getting any better. The air is polluted, kids are constantly exploited, it's overcrowded. To add on to this I have my own personal issues that include but are not limited to: My husband dying of cholera, my first born child, Margaret being a nuisance, my housebreaking and the fact that I am pregnant. Also, did I forget to mention that I am preparing to make the 100-day journey to New Zeland tomorrow? yea well I am.

Everything is all packed, I have all my life savings ( 3489 pounds to be exact), Our goodbyes have been said and now all there is left for me and my child to do is pick up my brother, Charles who is also making the dangerous journey with us. I am beyond nervous. There are hundreds of people gathered to board the old, sketchy sailing boat (No of which seem to know what manners are). As I am boarding the boat I was thanking God that my family is wealthy enough to get a room for the family instead of being stuffed into the overcrowded tiers like the majority of the 300 passengers.

It has been roughly 50 days since we first boarded the boat. I am now 8 months pregnant and expecting my baby in a month or two. I am unsure if I will even survive long enough to give birth. Recently there has been a typhoid outbreak and all around me, people are falling ill. Due to there not being enough doctors or supplies once you got this dreaded disease you were left to die. I am not 100% sure but there have been rumours over 30 people have died already, thankfully all of those deaths have been in the tiers and not in the family rooms. We have been given advice by one of the workers on the ship to take extra precautions when venturing out of our room and to isolate yourself when possible.  To make matters worse our ship is constantly going into stormy weathers, rocking everything (including ourselves) back and forth the ship. Due to the weathers, the captain has just about crashed a few times as well, making the journey so much scarier especially since he doesn't seem to care.  Hopefully, we live to see a new life in New Zealand.

I can tell Margaret is getting quite agitated after spending so long in this boat. More people have died from the typhoid outbreak, the food has gone, and there is simply nothing for Margaret to do to pass the time. It has been roughly 80 days at this point (I have stopped counting) and I am about to give birth. Margaret and Charles have been helping me prepare for my child and have even managed to find me a doctor on this boat. It's obvious that both my brother and my daughter are concerned about the fact that I have to give birth on this horrible and unhygienic boat.

We have just got the news that New Zealand is now a mear 5 days away and I couldn't be more excited. Thankfully, my pregnancy was over as it just made the journey harder due to the fact I didn't get enough medical attention or that I couldn't sove my cravings baby was born a week ago and I have decided to call her Elizebeth, after this lovely women I met on the boat who sadly died for the Typiod outbreak. . Margaret is bonding well with Elizebeth and is now doing much better with something to pass the time in our family room, which by the way we are still isolated in. The typiod death count has now gotten to over 80 with the majority of the bottom tier dying. A few weeks ago we didn't think we would make it but now I am certain we will.

We have been in New Zealand for a month now and we are adapting well. My daughters are now able to be educated without the fear of exploitation and Charles has got a job that pays good money. Margaret has many more friends than England and Elizabeth is popular within the adults due to her being such a small and cute baby. Our house has much more space and the community we live in is so much more inviting than England. New Zealand is such a lovely place and we are so grateful that we were able to successfully make it to New Zealand to start a new life.