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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.
In 2009, the Minister of Māori Affairs stated that a Māori flag should be flown at Auckland Harbour Bridge on Waitangi Day, [8] the National Day of New Zealand. The Tino Rangatiratanga flag was recognised as the preferred Māori flag by Cabinet on 14 December 2009. [ 8 ]
A Māori advocacy group, Te Ata Tino Toa, applied for the national Māori flag to fly on the Auckland Harbour Bridge on Waitangi Day beginning in 2008. Initially, Transit New Zealand , the government agency that was responsible for the bridge, declined on the basis that the flag did not represent a country recognised by the United Nations. [ 5 ]
Waitangi Day marks the first signing of New Zealand's Treaty of Waitangi or Te Tiriti o Waitangi in Māori between the British Crown and Māori chiefs in 1840.
On 5 February 1840, just eight days after arriving in New Zealand, William Hobson oversaw the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, a process during which more than 500 Māori relinquished certain land and rights to the British Crown, though the content of the treaty and the circumstances of its signing have been a subject of controversy ever since.
The anniversary of the signing of the treaty – 6 February – is the New Zealand national day, Waitangi Day. The day was first commemorated in 1934, [198] when the site of the original signing, Treaty House, was made a public reserve (along with its grounds). [69] However, it was not until 1974 that the date was made a public holiday.
The flag of New Zealand (Māori: te haki o Aotearoa), also known as the New Zealand Ensign, [1] is based on the British maritime Blue Ensign – a blue field with the Union Jack in the canton or upper hoist corner – augmented or defaced with four red stars centred within four white stars, representing the Southern Cross constellation.
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