Word Puzzle New Zealand’s central document, the Treaty of Waitangi, was drafted hastily as a single-page manuscript. Māori chiefs signed it in 1840 after only a day and night of discussion. Unable to read, few understood any English, and even fewer grasped the abstract political concepts. Those who signed relied partly on an instinctive sense of the Treaty’s meaning and importance. Interpreting the Treaty remains a deeply contentious issue today, and artists often choose to avoid this debate. My works highlight the lack of comprehension and the cloud of misunderstanding experienced by those encountering unfamiliar symbols and ideas. These pieces combine random elements with asemic calligraphy to represent confusion and a lack of meaning. They merge painting with torn or asemic renderings of the Treaty’s words, collages of paper, and paintings unified through photography. https://platform.wise.art/author/TomAng/ https://www.instagram.com/tomangphoto/