Instead of attempting what will always be a poor man's imitation of a foreign festival, why aren't we concentrating on a decent celebration of our own national day?
When it comes to sport, we're 10 foot tall and full of self-confidence. Our teams haka their way around the world, strutting our unique brand wherever they compete. But when it comes to national identity at home, we're as meek and diffident as that stupid nocturnal bird we've come to identify ourselves with.
Who would believe it; 176 years old and we still can't even organise a decent national birthday party for ourselves.
Now, if we're not careful, our major population centre is about to lose that date to foreign dragon puppets. And why? Apparently to make visiting Chinese tourists feel more at home.
Talk about dumb Kiwis. We haven't rid ourselves of our previous colonial masters, and now we're flirting with a new one.
We should be saying sorry, early February is taken. If you want to party, bring your dragons and your fireworks to our show. The embarrassing thing is, we don't really have one.
For years now, we've grumbled about Waitangi Day being the Harawira family's day of protest. The media gets fixated on the annual countdown to the rumble on the lower marae.
Who will throw what. Will the prime minister go or won't he/she. Both Helen Clark, and this year, John Key have tried to diffuse their fun by staying away. But they don't come up with an alternative.
Auckland, with a third of the country's population, and by far the most diverse and cosmopolitan make-up, is the obvious place to take the next step, lift Waitangi Day celebrations out of dysfunctional Waitangi, and create a new-style national birthday.
If people want to bring their gongs and firecrackers and dragons and monkeys, I'm all for it. But as one part of the rich tapestry of New Zealand's developing national identity.
The Scots, for example, are always complaining of lack of support from council for their tribal celebrations. Here's their chance, along with the Dallies and people of the Pacific and all the other groups which make New Zealand what it is today.
Meanwhile the council's tourism and economic arm, Ateed and the Asian Foundation are contemplating a dragon parade up Queen St. This is backed by Tourism New Zealand's chief executive Kevin Bowler who says the increase in Chinese New Year celebrations is "great".
Massey University associate professor of marketing, Henry Chung echoes this saying it would enable Chinese tourists not to miss out on New Year celebrations.
However, Tourism New Zealand's own surveys don't mention partaking in Chinese New Year celebrations as high on their list of Chinese tourists' must-dos. Visiting beaches and other natural attractions, such as geothermal areas, are high up, as are seeing native birds and visiting farms and orchards.
In time, hopefully, they might add Auckland's unique mid-summer birthday parade up Queen St to that list.
A parade that represents all the groups that make up present-day Auckland, swirling pipes bands, throbbing Island drums, bobbing dragons, the lot. A day not just to mull over past injustices, but to celebrate our nation-building successes as well.
Currently, the city's contribution to Waitangi Day celebrations includes $112,000 for the family fun day at Hayman Park, Manukau, $71,340 towards events at Bastion Point and $29,500 to the Hoani Waititi Marae, Henderson event.
The Ministry of Culture and Heritage pays $10,000 to each of these events, which is a lot less than the $142,000 it contributes to the events at Waitangi.
All told, at less than 10 cents an Aucklander, it's a pretty mean birthday spend. But more to the point, what's needed is some leadership to deliver a proper Auckland Waitangi Day celebration, dragons included.
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