The Ngai Tahu Treaty Festival 2021 was hosted by Awarua Runaka at Te Rau Aroha Marae in Awarua.
While the focus of the day was officially on freshwater, Waihopai Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu representative Michael Skerrett said on Waitangi Day it was important to celebrate community and the treaty partnership.
"It is a celebration day for all New Zealanders," he said.
Cultural groups performing included the Queenstown and Southern Lakes Pipe Band, accompanied by Irish dancers; the Indonesian community, who performed using the angklung, made using bamboo tubes and string; and members of Pasion Salsa.
Hundreds gathered in Earnslaw Park to take in the entertainment, which began with Cory Ratahi's waiata group, Waiatatia.
Along with waiata, Mr Ratahi spoke about the history of the Treaty of Waitangi and the legend of Hakitekura, who became the first woman to swim across Lake Wakatipu.
Dunedin deputy mayor Christine Garey said she believed the first people to arrive in Dunedin hundreds of years ago came for the same reason every settler had thereafter — "to find paradise".
In the crowd, retired Anglican priest Wiremu Quedley, of Dunedin, reflected on the changed focus of Waitangi Day and the improved partnership.
"Today is a day of celebration of who we are as a people of many cultures within this land," he said on Saturday.
At the weekend, he celebrated his own Ngati Hau and British descent after his own forebears fought each other generations ago.
On his father’s side, his predecessor arrived in New Zealand as a redcoat and fought his tupuna on the other side in Waikato, he said.
"Things have moved on," Fr Quedley said. "It’s taken years."
