Expanding citizenship composed the second part of the greatest rupture in New Zealand history since colonisation, the New Zealand wars, and World War I. Rupture in the very meaning of New Zealandness obliged people to adapt to new ideas about who belonged. The country reshaped its political institutions to reflect that its people and culture had grown more diverse and connected to the world, and to accommodate the concept of biculturalism.

The treaty comes alive

Internally the Treaty of Waitangi's return to public life drove these changes. The wairua (spirit) of the treaty makes it unique in the world, determined its place in history and, in turn, shaped national myth-making in the late twentieth century. Gradually the Maori narrative of the treaty began to seep into public awareness. Maori had consistently called for the Crown to honour the treaty; pronounced a ‘simple nullity’ by the courts in 1877, its spirit stirred 100 years later not just in Maoridom but in the body politic, changing assumptions entrenched since 1840 about the importance of land to Maori and decision-making about paths ahead.