13th December 1642, Abel Tasman, commander of a two vessel company expedition sails over the western rim of the sea that would eventually bear his name.

The Reverend Henry Williams and his family spend almost a year at sea, leaving their home land of England to arrive in Aotearoa. His objective - to convert the indigenous population to christianity.

In the early 19th century, Māori contact with Europeans was rare. Abel Tasman's short encounter with Aotearoa and its people left no lasting imprint. 126 years later, Captain James Cook and the crew of the Endeavour would leave an enduring impression

The New Zealand Wars were a series of armed conflicts. At the heart of the conflict lay a volatile combination of issues - sovereignty, tino rangatiratanga, and for the settler government an unwillingness by Māori to sell their land.

The year was 1836, and Edward Gibbon Wakefield was promoting his idea for the systematic colonisation of New Zealand before the House of Commons in London, England.

As New Zealand's two peoples, Māori and Pākehā venture into the future together, will they continue to pay the price for a deal handicapped by language barriers and different cultural interpretation?

It's Thursday 6th of February 1840 in Waitangi, and the constitutional relationship between Britain and Māori is being recognised by the formal signing of a treaty. We look at the 13 women who signed the Treaty of Waitangi with an emphasis on two.