Waitangi Day at Treaty Grounds brings humbling experience for whānau

One of the protests against the new coalition Government at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds on Monday was from this hikoi, led by Tame Iti. Photo / Michael Cunningham

This year’s Waitangi Day commemorations drew more people to the site of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi than have been seen there for many years.

Some came on the call of kotahitanga (togetherness) from iwi leaders, some to experience what the four-day commemorations have to offer and some to make their voices heard by the coalition Government. Two of our iwi members were among the crowds, they share their experiences here.

Local whānau share their experiences at Waitangi.

Te Haana Paewai

To sum up Waitangi 2024 for me, I would say that it was a shock to my being, Māori people will understand this as “he mea wairua” (my living soul).

I arrived on Sunday to see the Kiingitanga (Māori King Movement) and the many other iwi Māori eke on to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds.

Somehow I accidentally found myself in Tame Iti’s pōhiri (ceremony) on Monday with Whaea Lorraine Stephenson who wore a rainbow when everyone else wore white.

I watched from a tree the Government’s pōhiri on a huge screen adjacent to the Whare Rūnanga (meeting house).

On Waitangi Day, my sister and I, at 3.50am, walked from Paihia to the Treaty Grounds for the dawn ceremony. I left that to attend the much smaller dawn ceremony at Te Tii Marae. I spent the rest of the day with a wairua.

There is so much more to say about my experience at Waitangi this year. Everyone’s experience of Waitangi would have been unbelievable, including Whaea Lorraine.

Lorraine Stephenson

I had been at the Iwi Chairs Forum in Kerikeri and decided I needed to stay for the Waitangi celebrations to get a feel personally on how our people are feeling and this Government’s 100-day plan. Te Tiriti (the Treaty of Waitangi) was a topic at the forum with iwi leaders united in pushing back on this Government’s plans to tamper with our nation’s founding document.

One of many amazing and humbling experiences for me was the invitation by Ngāpuhi to join their hīkoi of horse riders from Far North communities to stand in solidarity against those plans. Michelle Lee and I joined them at Kāwiti Marae, Waiomio, riding the final 22km to Waitangi.

After spending time in Waitangi I have come home with a better understanding of how to better inform our people and our communities on this important issue.