Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven – Shane Jones

• NZ First will not support David Seymour’s Treaty Principles Bill any further.
• Debate over the Treaty’s Māori and English translated versions has polarised discussions, alienating many people.
• NZ First believes Waitangi Day should focus on unity and celebration, with inclusive activities highlighting national identity and shared ideals.

Our originating document, the Treaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south.

The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, safeguard Māori rights and extend to them the rights and privileges of British subjects. A bilingual Treaty was translated by the missionaries. We ought not be surprised that the two versions have some differences.

NZ First MP Shane Jones during his speech at Rātana Pā last month. Photo / Mark Mitchell

It has become faddish to dismember the agreement into the English version as opposed to the Māori version, a political gimmick guaranteed to drive a wedge. The Treaty is indivisible, the underlying thread was best summed up by Governor Hobson, “he tahi tatou”. Together, we are one people.

The guiding force of the Treaty, the aspirations of the founders, flowed from a rich philosophical seedbed including the Magna Carta and the English Bill of Rights. Chiefs such as Tamati Waka Nene were aware a new dawn had arrived. It was too late to go back. Best to navigate the future rather than deny it.

Neglected for many decades, Treaty tension has become all too familiar. A kind of rite of passage where this 185-year-old parchment is decoded depending on your ideology. Look no further than the debate about the Treaty Principles Bill.

A legislative proposal that will not pass into law but has become an echo chamber. Voices talking past each other about scenarios that will never come to pass. The Treaty debate has become polarised and the vast majority of Kiwis are alienated from both sides.

In the early 1970s, I rarely made it to Waitangi because February 6 was the day pupils returned to St Stephen’s School. A time when the Treaty was not curriculum material. Rather a matter discussed at length by our kaumātua and the occasional clergyman.

The original nine documents of the Treaty of Waitangi are held in Wellington.

In those days, Tai Tokerau whānau were more interested in watching the historic 1940s waka Ngatokimatawhaorua than debates about kawangatanga and rangatiratanga. Whilst there is community interest in the former, there is very little citizen equity in the latter.

Herein lies the problem with the architecture of Waitangi Day. Confrontation rather than commemoration is winning out, aided by the binary clickbait approach of the media.

The story of Waitangi has become politically driven and less community-driven. Change has to happen.

Nations are defined by shared ideals. Our national day needs to reinforce them. Some Māori believe they are derived from the Treaty. Others will tell us that they are based on universal principles of freedom, democracy and unity. The latter may be described as summit values. Towering in front of liberal, open societies.

The Hīkoi mo te Tiriti marching up Rotorua’s Fenton St.

The Treaty, however, is not a document to be hijacked as a political party manifesto. It was signed in good faith and upon it a nation was founded. Contexts, however, change and our society is in transit. The past has shaped our memories. More important, however, is the vision for the future.

As a roadmap towards 2040, Waitangi Day should be celebrated with multiple activities across multiple sites that are inclusive, organised around collective pursuits which connect communities.

Celebrating nationhood through sport, music, theatre and activity that remind us of our origins.

The springboard of national identity is found in mutual respect, service, participation and cultivating unity.

Waitangi will always have a unique place in our nation’s history. The future, however, for us on our national day is around a simple idea; one country, one people, one flag – irrespective of gender, race or creed.