Waitangi Day is set to break records with more than 80,000 people expected to arrive at Waitangi in Aotearoa’s (New Zealand) North Island.
The national holiday commemorates the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi between Maori and the British Crown on February 6 1840.
This year its commemoration comes at a time when many Maori protections have been removed or wound back by the New Zealand Government, which is also trying to alter the Treaty’s interpretation.
The first reading of that alteration bill in New Zealand parliament last year sparked mass protests by Maori – and this viral Haka in New Zealand’s parliament led by Te Pati Maori Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke
Ngāti Kahu woman and Auckland University Professor Margaret Mutu says it’s a day for Maori to keep the government accountable.
“Waitangi Day and the Waitangi week is a time when the Crown and Maori – particularly the rangatira (Maori chiefs) – come together to commemorate the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
It is a day on which the Maori world holds the government to account for how it has performed in terms of its obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi.”
Prof Mutu says a lot of work is being done to accommodate for the record breaking crowd expected to arrive.
“About three kilometers away from the grounds there’s massive parking grounds and then free busses going backwards and forwards.
“There are very large camping grounds where a lot of our rangatahi (young people) are staying.
“There’s a place that was an old rugby field that’s got what they’re calling a tent city on it, where a lot of the rangatahi are staying.”
Prof. Mutu says over the last 12 months she’s seeing more young Maori politically motivated to protect their rights.
“They will not tolerate any of these sorts of attempts to say to them, ‘you can’t do this, you can’t do that because you’re Maori.‘
Professor Margaret Mutu
They just will not tolerate it.”
This week Iwi (tribes) have been meeting as part of the Iwi Chairs Forum, which is planning the next steps Maori will take against the government’s anti-Maori policies.
LOOK BACK: Treaty Bill Threatens Maori Sovereignty Concerns are growing across New Zealand’s Maori population over the government’s push to alter the country’s treaty with its Indigenous people… Image credit Jorge Royan
Professor Mutu says there’s been a lot of talk around one particular idea during the forum.
“There is a great deal of talk about having our own Maori body that makes our own decisions about Maori issues.
Leave the Pākehās (white New Zealanders) and their parliamentary system, and we’ll come we’ll talk to them, but it’ll be in a body where we’re both are talking to each other on equal levels.”
She says Maori groups will need to spread awareness on what that body would mean to everyone who calls Aotearoa home.
“You must take all of the people with you.
You must include them all of the way. So that whatever we end up deciding that national assembly is going to look like it will be owned by all of Maori and all of our guests – the non Maori- will understand what we are doing when we do it.”
Listen to the full interview with Margaret Mutu here:
Image Credit: AAP Image/Marty Melville
