Te Tiriti o Waitangi

I visited the Treaty of Waitangi, at Archives New Zealand.

You leave any bags and cameras at the desk, and walk down a short corridor,

past a film from the 1950's playing on loop about town developments

past facsimiles of the Waitangi Sheet

in a nondescript anti-chamber, paneled veneer

and a steel safe door

framing a space in perpetual midnight

Your eyes adjust to the darkness,

and you see a collection of large granite cabinets, arranged in the small space.

Underneath cold monolithic sheets of (what I imagine to be) bullet proof glass

the nine sheets of Te Tiriti wait,

their signatures looking out.