The spirit of Waitangi: Unity, righteous anger, jokes and music - Simon Wilson

Te Pāti Māori co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi talk to media at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds ahead of Waitangi Day celebrations. Photo / Adam Pearse

OPINION

Two hours into the pōwhiri at Waitangi on Sunday, it was Rawiri Waititi’s turn to speak. “It’s so hot, my legs are wet,” was the first thing he said.

It’s an important thing to remember about the days of ceremony and celebration in this beautiful place. Amid all the hopes and fears and solemn rituals that dominate every event, there are many jokes.

Some are just jokes, but many are bluntly political, and personal. “Seymour, see less, whatever,” said Te Pāti Māori’s Rahui Papa.

Change has come again to Waitangi. The angry and sometimes violent protests of earlier decades gave way in more recent times to a sense of hope. An all-round commitment that everyone was working, at least to some degree, to a common end.

An agreement that everyone was there for the best kōrero they could manage.

But this year, it was, “Shane, where are you?”

Rātana speaker Taepa Kameta asked the question while on the paepae during the pōwhiri for the Kīngitana, Te Pāti Māori and other Māori groups.

“You came to my house at Rātana,” he said about Shane Jones, MP from NZ First and a senior figure in Ngāpuhi, the iwi of Northland. “And you told us, ‘If you want to talk, come to Waitangi.’ I am at your house now and you are not here. But we are all here.”

Government members used to spend five or six days at Waitangi. This year, the Government party are making a 24-hour visit, Monday to Tuesday only, and it hasn’t gone unnoticed.

Among those already here, the great purpose is unity. Kotahitanga. A shared purpose, to defend Te Tiriti, to defend all the decades of work that have gone into building the relationship between Crown and Māori, to defend everything that has been so hard-won by Māori.

That unity was demonstrated at the hui-ā-motu called by Kīngi Tūheitia in Turangawaewae in January. Papa said on Sunday that the idea for a unity hui had come from former governor-general Dame Sylvia Cartwright and former National Party prime minister Dame Jenny Shipley.

It’s not just unity. Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said the aim was “unity and righteous anger”. Labour’s Peeni Henare and Kelvin Davis were full of that anger in their own speeches.

Kīngi Tūheitia, the Māori King, on the mahau at the Whare Runanga at Waitangi, with Dame Naida Glavish, during the pōwhiri to welcome them on Sunday. Photo / Angus Dreaver / RNZ

And yet. “We will not respond to violence with violence,” said Ngāpuhi’s Hone Sadler. The sentiment was echoed time and again. The first speaker for the manuhiri [visitors] on Sunday was from Taranaki, where during the Land Wars, 2000 people offered peaceful resistance at Parihaka, and were driven off their land and into prison.

Choosing him to start the speeches didn’t seem like a coincidence. For the waiata after his kōrero, they reinforced the message with a Parihaka song, with poi.

Make no mistake, said speaker after speaker, we believe in peace, but we know we will have to fight.

And there will be more jokes. Humour is a powerful weapon. And music. The singing is glorious. The Rātana band – this one’s a composite from Kaikohe, Wellington and several other places – is a national treasure.

Simon Wilson is an award-winning senior writer covering politics, the climate crisis, transport, housing, urban design and social issues, with a focus on Auckland. He joined the Herald in 2018.