The days and hours leading up to New Zealand’s national commemoration day at Waitangi have often been fraught with tension: Māori leaders have a moment in the spotlight to call the government to account, and politicians compete to woo them – while trying to seem as though they are above politics.
But the Māori leaders who gathered in Northland’s Bay of Islands on Wednesday – where they met prime minister Jacinda Ardern to discuss the most pressing issues – said the mood at Waitangi had been the most optimistic and positive they could remember, for some in decades of attendance.
“The feeling was better, the engagement was better, the dialogue was better, the content was better, and the outcomes were more productive,” said Haami Piripi, the chair of Te Rarawa, a Māori iwi, or tribe, as he left a meeting on Wednesday between fellow leaders and Ardern.
Waitangi Day commemorates the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, modern New Zealand’s founding document, in 1840. It was intended to serve as an agreement between Māori leaders at the time and the British crown after settlers colonised New Zealand, but inconsistencies in the document’s translation and breaches of it by successive governments has caused generations of conflict.
The days leading up to Waitangi Day on Thursday have been traditionally a time for politicians and Māori leaders at the treaty grounds, a pristine beachfront spot, to discuss the state of the relationship – and have often clashed over Indigenous rights.
Wednesday was a bright, sunny day, although some of the heat that has fuelled Northland’s drought had fallen away as crowds trickled into the treaty grounds, some setting up tents near the Waitangi marae, or meeting house.
This year, several issues loomed over Ardern’s centre-left government: a dispute over what should happen to ancestral land at Ihumatāo, a rift the government is attempting to help resolve; the seizure of Māori children into state care, which was the subject of a damning report by Māori leaders this week; and the status of Indigenous claims to natural resources, such as water.
There were predictions that could mean a chilly reception for the government, led by Ardern’s Labour party. But leaders who spoke to the Guardian said that had not happened.
“Engagement by Labour has been extremely meaningful and has an authenticity about it that buoys me,” Piripi said of Wednesday’s meeting.
What New Zealand’s main opposition party, the centre-right National party, had offered Māori, he said, “wasn’t as sophisticated as what we’re doing now”.
The air at Waitangi is always filled with some tension, “as it should be”, said Shane te Pou, a political commentator at Waitangi. But the mood was the most optimistic he could remember, he said, and Ardern and her ministers had presented particularly well at Tuesday’s formal speeches on Waitangi’s upper marae.
He singled out Andrew Little, the minister for treaty settlements, for praise; he gave his speech entirely in te reo Māori, without using notes. Ardern, too, had been warmly welcomed, said te Pou; she was invited to speak on the side of the local people, rather than standing on the side of the marae reserved for guests.
“Some people might see it as theatrics but it did set a positive theme for the iwi leaders forum today,” he said of Little’s speech. In contrast, the National party leader, Simon Bridges, was criticised for making a particularly political speech in which he pledged a four-lane highway for the region; lawmakers are expected to eschew overt politics at Waitangi in favour of more subtle promises.
But some leaders were waiting to see if Ardern’s government could fulfil its promises, particularly over the removal of Māori children from their families by the state, which a report by the Māori commissioning agency, Whānau Ora, said on Monday was “inhumane” to Indigenous mothers.
Merepeka Raukawa-Tait, the board chair of Whānau Ora, who also attended Wednesday’s leaders’ meeting, said Ardern was “personable” and sincere in wanting to reduce child poverty.
“But I have over many years heard it all before,” she said. “The proof will be in walking the talk.”
After generations of colonisation, Māori have fallen behind on almost every health and economic measure. About 65% of children in care are Māori, but Māori only make up 16.5% of New Zealand’s population. Raukawa-Tait and others said they had urged the prime minister to allow Indigenous people to design their own solutions.
Following the meeting, Ardern said she and the iwi leaders had “agreed a bit of a work programme”.
“None of us want any children to be in harm’s way and all of us want to make the changes required to keep them safe,” she told reporters.
She had admitted in her speech on Tuesday that there was still “mahi to do”, using the Māori word for work. But te Pou said the prime minister had generated goodwill by arriving at Waitangi five or six days in advance, rather than whisking in and out as some other leaders had.
Ardern has certainly been more popular at Waitangi than her predecessors; previous prime ministers have had their speaking rights revoked on the marae, or were jostled or showered with mud by protesters. A minister in the former National government, Steven Joyce, was in 2016 struck in the face with a sex toy thrown by a woman calling for Maori sovereignty.
As Wednesday’s meeting between leaders and politicians broke up at a hotel near the treaty grounds, the grounds themselves had the air of a market. Marquees had gone up, and Māori wardens ushered cars into the parking lot with big waves. Some had made what was an annual pilgrimage to Waitangi – to be with other Māori, to remember the country’s history and to honour the treaty.
Piripi, the iwi leader, said the “ferocity of the day” had been diminished in recent years, without the earlier protests and tensions, and he was concerned Waitangi Day had become too festive when there was “really nothing to celebrate”.
“You can buy toffee apples and you can buy candy floss,” he said, referring to the treaty grounds. “Why would you want to eat toffee apples and candy floss on a day like that?”
