How the good intentions of ‘New Zealand Day’ diminished the mana of the Treaty – Stuff.co.nz

The conversations that New Zealand families had sitting around the dinner table on February 6, 1974, were contrasting.

For Pita Tipene, 13 at the time, his parents were criticising then Prime Minister Norman Kirk for stripping away the significance of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Others were excited a new era may have begun.

The Labour Government had changed Waitangi Day to New Zealand Day to reframe the day on which Mori and the Crown signed the foundational document of Aotearoa in 1840.

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History remembers the name change as a bid to bring a greater sense of nationhood to the country, so that Mori, European, and every other culture could come together under one flag and celebrate as one people.

RICKY WILSON/Stuff

Ngti Hine leader Pita Tipene says the foundations of Te Tiriti o Waitangi are still yet to be met.

But Tipenes whnau saw the change in a different light.

Tipene, chair of the Waitangi National Trust Board and leader of Ngti Hine, says he was too young at the time to understand the significance of the name change.

What got put in the newspapers and into Google searches is a little bit different to what was happening here.

Hindsight is God's gift to fools, I wouldnt have realised at the time.

Just 14 years prior, the Waitangi Day Act of 1960 declared that February 6 be known as Waitangi Day and would be observed nationally although not as a public holiday.

However, Kirk announced in 1973 that the following year the day would be known as New Zealand Day and that it would become a national public holiday.

The commemorations at Waitangi in 1974 were nothing short of pageantry, with Queen Elizabeth II in attendance for the celebrations, which included the show, Aotearoa, depicting the country's journey towards nationhood with parts played by people of many cultures.

However, New Zealand Day proved to be short-lived.

Stuff

Queen Elizabeth II and then Prime Minister Norman Kirk at Waitangi on New Zealand Day, 1974.

Following Kirks sudden death in 1974, and the National Partys rise to power under Robert Muldoon, the Waitangi Day Act of 1976 put an end to Kirks vision.

But Tipene says the New Zealand Day vision was flawed from the beginning.

People in our community thought it was a whitewash and trying to water down Te Tiriti and what it means to tpuna.

They were trying to appease middle New Zealand.

Kelly Hodel/Stuff

Kaumtua and Professor Tom Roa says there were mixed feelings about New Zealand Day among Mori.

Kaumtua and Mori and indigenous studies Professor Tom Roa, of Ngti Maniapoto and Waikato Tainui, was studying at Victoria University at the time.

He remembers mixed perspectives across Moridom about the name change.

I do recall some of our people welcoming this inclusiveness. There was a genuine Mori euphoria, there was hope for a better society and if there was hope at recovering, then lets try it.

However, he also remembers others viewing the name change as another way for the Crown to ignore the promises of Te Tiriti.

KATHRYN GEORGE/STUFF

Stuff's NZ Made/N Nu Treni project: When the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, Mori owned more than 66 million acres of land. By 1975, almost 97 per cent had been sold or taken. (Last published February 1, 2021.)

New Zealand Day was a Crown construct. It may have had all the good intentions in the world, but it ignored the Mori partners.

Naming it New Zealand Day gave it a preference to the English. Had the proper treatment been made to consult with the treaty partners, the day would have remained Waitangi Day.

Still, Roa says he appreciates what Kirk was trying to do.

By separating Treaty issues from a day of unity, Kirk was trying to bring the nation together as a whole, but it is impossible to separate the two, says Roa.

The issue is Te Tiriti o Waitangi was an agreement between the rangatira Mori who signed the treaty of the time and the Crown, but over time the Crown made all the decisions.

Te Tiriti o Waitangi was a promise of the future, he says, but changing the name of the day marking its signing without consultation and moving forward without understanding what the Treaty represented and meant to Mori was the wrong move, Roa says.

I grew up with the stories and saw that, in the early days, there was real promise, Roa says. But then those who saw opportunities through using the war machinery of the most powerful country at the time, they didnt want to share with Mori the riches of this land, and the promise of Te Tiriti was destroyed. I think were still suffering the effects today.

I think people like Pita and I, I would call us fortunate in that our parents talked to us about this, our elders shared with us as it was important for us to know.

John Bisset/Stuff

Te Tiriti o Waitangi is about the promise of a future for all, like Aria Patangata, pictured at a Waitangi Day celebration in 2020.

The mana of [Waitangi] and the rangatira there who first signed the Treaty are somewhat diminished when we say its New Zealand Day, but the mana is strengthened when we say Waitangi Day.

Tipene says there have been huge strides in respect for the Treaty since he was sitting at that table with his whnau 50 years ago.

There's a wider understanding of what Governor William Hobson declared when the Treaty was signed, Tipene says.

When Hobson said He iwi tahi ttou at Waitangi when the Treaty was signed, he wasnt saying we are one people, says Tipene. He was saying we are two people, one nation.

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Im one, and one of many, who really appreciates the significance.

Its the signing of a document that set the foundations of a nationhood that certainly havent been reached but we are on a journey where New Zealanders are changing in their hearts and minds.

Some still view February 6 as a day for the beach or a public holiday to do as you please, but Tipene says all New Zealanders should take the time to think about the past, how its impacted the present, and where Aotearoa wants to be in the future.

All New Zealanders should be thinking about what it meant in 1840, and what it means now in 2022 and beyond.

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How the good intentions of 'New Zealand Day' diminished the mana of the Treaty - Stuff.co.nz