Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Waitangi Day (Māori: Te Rā o Waitangi), the national day of New Zealand, marks the anniversary of the initial signing—on 6 February 1840—of the Treaty of Waitangi.The Treaty of Waitangi was an agreement towards British sovereignty by representatives of the Crown and indigenous Māori chiefs, and so is regarded by many as the founding document of the nation.
Although a large proportion of chiefs had signed the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, there were almost immediately disagreement over British sovereignty of the country, which led to several armed conflicts and disputes beginning in the 1840s, [2] including the Flagstaff War, a dispute over the flying of the British Union Flag at the then colonial capital, Kororareka in the Bay of Islands.
The bill would redefine the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. The bill was introduced in November 2024 by the right-wing coalition government as a key policy goal of David Seymour (leader of the libertarian ACT party). Seymour rejected the idea that the Treaty of Waitangi was a partnership between the New Zealand Crown and Māori iwi. He ...
The main celebrations will be held on Feb. 6, marking the day in 1840 when the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between the British Crown and more than 500 Maori chiefs.
Ngā Tamatoa initiated the annual protests at Waitangi on Waitangi Day, in 1973 after Prime Minister Norman Kirk changed the name of the day to 'New Zealand Day'. The group claimed that "the Treaty is a fraud" because of the ongoing breaches committed by the Government.
In 1973 the New Zealand Day Act made the day a public holiday and renamed it New Zealand Day, and also abolished the Waitangi Day Act 1960. Many Māori felt that the new name drew attention away from the Treaty of Waitangi, [2] and campaigned for the name to be changed back.
Waitangi Day is thus celebrated as New Zealand's national day. Some constitutional lawyers, such as Moana Jackson, have argued that the Treaty did not cede total sovereignty of New Zealand to the British Crown, and argue that the Treaty intended to protect tino rangatiratanga or the absolute independence of Māori.
The 1963 Waitangi Day celebrations in Waitangi, Northland, were attended by Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh. [2] A bus was chartered by the Māori Affairs Department to carry 35 passengers to and from the celebrations. [3] All of the passengers were Māori from the wider Auckland area, many from the Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara iwi. [4]