Missing out on a quiet Waitangi Day

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

Waitangi Day 2022 has become yet another victim of the Covid pandemic with virtually no major events planned because of the public health risk and limited numbers allowed in the red setting.

The usual celebrations at the Treaty grounds have been cancelled, the chairman of the Waitangi National Trust Pita Tipene saying he hoped a televised event would mark the occasion.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Governor General Dame Cindy Kiro travelled to Waitangi last week to pre-record a Waitangi Day broadcast. Both became close contacts of a positive Covid case on a return flight to Auckland and have had to isolate for 10 days.

Ardern was planning to visit the National Library in Wellington which holds the Treaty. It is also holding an exhibition He Tohu, taking the public on tours of New Zealand's founding documents — including the Women's Suffrage Petition. Meanwhile, the Governor General is intending to spend Waitangi Day delivering food to the Wellington City Mission's Social Supermarket.

Other ministers and party leaders have indicated they will be observing the day privately, although ACT is using the weekend for a caucus retreat while National leader Christopher Luxon says he'll be spending the morning at the Takapuna Boating Club.

The majority of the population will be utilising the weekend as a public holiday, the last three-day one of the summer . . . although here in the Gisborne district rain is forecast.

New Zealand's reaction to its national day has always been a little ambivalent. In the past many people disliked the way it was often a platform for public protest; in recent years it has passed more peacefully.

As our opinion pages show, there is a divide on how the country's history in particular should be regarded.

It is unfortunate that ACT leader David Seymour has chosen this moment to say his party would remove the Treaty from New Zealand's laws, and accuse the Government of being obsessed with it. Unfortunately there is still an audience for this viewpoint.

Sad also that the general reaction of Kiwis to Waitangi Day weekend is one of apathy and a lack of understanding of the real reasons for it.

The Treaty remains a symbol for those working for Maori rights as New Zealand continues to work towards creating greater understanding of where it stands and its ethos. A quiet Waitangi Day might not be a good thing.