Nōpera Pana-kareao

Nōpera Pana-kareao signed the Waitangi sheet of the Treaty of Waitangi on 28 April 1840 at Kaitāia. His wife Ereōnora signed at the same time.

Pana-kareao was the final speaker on the day and his summing up of the treaty became famous: ‘What have we to say against the governor, the shadow of the land will go to him but the substance will remain with us’. Only a year later he reversed his position. According to the missionary Richard Taylor, ‘now he fears the substance of it will go to [the British] and the shadow only be [the Maori] portion.’