At the top of the South Island, no one asked Ngāti Apa before the Crown bought the entire area. Within roughly two decades, Ngāti Apa was down to five acres (the equivalent of five rugby fields).

Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei transferred the future Auckland city to the Crown for the equivalent of about $70,000 in today’s currency.

Eighteen million acres represents more than a quarter of the entire land mass of New Zealand. Or about 67 Aucklands. It was all gone between 1865 and 1909.

Within 44 years, 18 million acres of New Zealand land passed from the purview of one group of people into the hands of scores of others. Some of the new owners were not in the country yet.

New Zealand’s current housing crisis demonstrates what can go wrong for people without a place to call home. Unemployment, poverty, drugs, mental and physical health problems.

The land alienation that happened at the beginning of this country’s modern existence was much, much worse. In short order, an entire race of people was shunted from their homes or forced to find new ways of sustaining themselves - often in unfamiliar settings. In clashes with the Crown, some were imprisoned and many hundreds were killed.

For instance, Nelson’s Ngāti Kuia was pressured to give up its land. In exchange, it was given some money and land that wasn’t suitable for the iwi to either maintain customary practices or develop to suit the new economy. They became economically marginalised as a result.

The confronting truth of what happened in our recent past is something New Zealanders have to reckon with. The Treaty of Waitangi settlement process exists because of it.

On this page, you can connect the two. Every completed Treaty settlement, including a brief summary of the historical background, is outlined in the interactive graphic below. The maps for each show where each iwi was at before land began to be alienated. For many, Stuff has been able to establish the total area alienated over time.

Every corner of New Zealand is a part of this story. Look at the maps. Read the stories. Watch the videos. Grasp the numbers. This is the unsettling truth about the way this country was established.