The march left Te Rēinga Wairua/Cape Reinga at dawn on February 2 and reached Te Tii Marae this morning, Waitangi Day.
Its mission is a fight against any planned changes to New Zealand’s founding document. About 1000 people are involved in the Toitu te Tiriti hīkoi, which was formally welcomed to Te Tii with a pōwhiri.
It follows thousands flocking to Te Whare Rūnanga for the Waitangi Day dawn ceremony this morning where political and community leaders offered prayers and readings to the crowd.
This morning, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters hit out at his treatment at Waitangi yesterday, saying it was the “worst display” and that Ngāpuhi let themselves down.
Peters, who was back in Auckland ahead of a trip to the Pacific in his capacity as Foreign Minister, told Newstalk ZB this morning he believed it was “sheer politics” driving the response after his brief address at Waitangi yesterday was interrupted by the audience.
Government ministers were met by a fierce haka, heckled by protesters and their speeches drowned out by song yesterday as they arrived in the town of Waitangi in the Far North for anniversary commemorations of the signing of New Zealand’s founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi.
The centre-right coalition is promising to undo policies of previous governments - particularly those promoting the official use of the Māori language and seeking to enhance Indigenous living standards and rights.
The government has also said it will introduce, but is not committed to passing, a bill that would reinterpret the Treaty of Waitangi, spearheaded by the Act party.
Prominent Māori leaders and their supporters have called a united front, declaring the Treaty sacrosanct.
Protests are planned for the main celebration, February 6, marking the day in 1840 when the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between the British Crown and more than 500 Maori chiefs.
A hīkoi with an estimated 700 people marched from Paihia to Waitangi this morning.
A lead organiser of Waitangi Day celebrations believes Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s speech yesterday didn’t sufficiently address Te Tiriti o Waitangi but the government has earned an apology for the disruption caused by some in the thousands watching proceedings in Waitangi.
Luxon stuck to his script on the mahau (verandah) of the Te Whare Runanga marae at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds as he repeated his regular kōrero about improving outcomes for Māori as he envisioned New Zealand in 2040 when the Te Tiriti turned 200.
The scale of the concern expressed in the past two days led Waitangi National Trust board chairman Pita Tipene to consider Luxon’s speech yesterday to be lacking in addressing the concerns of Māoridom. However, Tipene accepted there had been “glacial” progress and looked forward to further discussion.
He also offered an apology to the government for the disruption caused by some in the thousands who gathered to watch the Crown’s pōwhiri on a stunning Bay of Islands day, saying interruptions to kaikōrero (speeches) from Act leader David Seymour and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters were not appropriate.
Aside from a few protesters who had to be restrained by security, the main source of disruption came from hecklers and those who sang in an attempt to drown out Seymour.
- NZ Herald and Reuters
