By ALISON HORWOOD
Associate Maori Affairs Minister John Tamihere says Waitangi Day has become dogged with grievance and protest and Maori need to take a more mature approach to the commemoration.
He says Waitangi Day should be a day for continuing to define the nation.
"Those processes are in place, but it
is not working yet," he says. "The day will one day be deemed to be our national day, but at this moment in time it is dominated by grievance, protest and a lack of respect.
"Maori need to shift the debate on to more progressive and positive things about who they are, and where they are."
Mr Tamihere and others agree that, as a national day to mark the signing of the treaty at Waitangi on February 6, 1840, it is not working.
Historian Michael King says it has become an opportunity to check the report card on race relations and "someone will always find the verdict unsatisfactory".
"It has not worked well as a national day over the past two decades."
He suggests a celebration on Anzac Day, which has universal appeal, or on November 25, the day that, in 1946, Parliament adopted the Statute of Westminster, making New Zealand a fully independent nation.
Author Alan Duff says the day has been hijacked by a small group and New Zealanders need to remember what they have achieved.
He supports renaming it New Zealand Day.
Constitutional lawyer Mai Chen says the treaty does not expressly set out to provide the answer to every problem, but it offers some basis for discussion about how to resolve them.
"Waitangi Day should facilitate solutions. Dissent and protest for the sake of dissent and protest will simply make the majority of New Zealanders feel like Ecclesiastes. It is like chasing the wind."
TV's Mikey Havoc sees the treaty as a "thoroughly European way of carving up land without having to sacrifice soldiers from halfway across the world", but says those involved at the time may have thought they were doing the best.
He would like to see Waitangi Day as a chance to call "this beautiful land home".
"It would be nice to think we were unified, with a focused, progressive and positive outlook for the future, so that one day maybe, all of our children felt part of the same blood."
