Who Sold Wiremu Tāmihana's Peace Covenant

On the 27th of May 1865, Wiremu Tāmihana and Brigadier-General George Carey met to make peace after the Crown's invasion of the Waikato in 1863.

Nearly 70 years later, the document on which this peace was signed would emerge for sale, unexpectedly in the hands of a struggling labourer from the rural Waikato. Who was this man, and why did he have the peace covenant?

Even 90 years after the Wiremu Tāmihana's original peace covenant was purchased by the long-defunct Old Colonist's Museum, very little of its story has been told. Senior Librarian Liam Appleton explores the history and provenance surrounding the 1865 peace covenant, how it came to reside in the heritage collections of Auckland Libraries, and what the original document can tell us.