Waitangi Day: Let us all become Ngati Kiwi, says Jim Anderton

Progressive Coalition leader Jim Anderton said yesterday the Treaty of Waitangi was changing the identity of New Zealanders.

"We are, I believe, becoming a new tribe - I think of us as Ngati Kiwi," he said in a Waitangi Day address at Orongomai Marae, in Lower Hutt.

He said New Zealanders worldwide knew they had a shared identity which was part Pacific, part Maori and part European.

"That blend makes us unique," he said.

"I do not see the treaty [of Waitangi], and the bonds that it has fostered, as being all about Maori identity, Maori protection, Maori this or Maori that.

"I see the treaty as being about our identity as New Zealanders. I think we are in the process of creating a new Pacific people."

Mr Anderton said he believed New Zealand's future would embrace the treaty but reject separate development.

"It is a future where Maori aren't expected to blend into some sort of amorphous grey mixture but where we all share and take pride in what makes us different, what makes us Ngati Kiwi," he said.

"Our unique treaty is a statement that we intend to live together - all of us - peacefully and with good will."

Few New Zealanders would reject the notion that there had been breaches of treaty promises and that those breaches needed to be acknowledged and dealt with.

"But we cannot face the future with confidence and a sense of security about ourselves as New Zealanders based on the suggestion that all our history has been of injustice," Mr Anderton said.

"We cannot have, or be, victims forever.

"We need to acknowledge, fix and move on - together."

- NZPA