Waitangi Day is what we make of it, says Race Relations Commissioner Joris de Bres.
In Tauranga, a dawn service will be held at the base of Hopukiore/Mt Dury, followed by a breakfast at Whareroa marae and a community celebration with discussions and kapa haka.
At the annual Toi o Manukau Waitangi Day Family Celebrations at Barry Curtis Park, Flat Bush, Waitangi Day is marked by a full-on outdoor concert with Katchafire, Ardijah and Long Shen Dao, China's No1 reggae band.
The South Auckland celebration is the largest Waitangi Day gathering in the country and upwards of 30,000 people attend each year.
Around New Zealand, from the Far North to the Chatham Islands, there are many more events like these, and they complement the ceremonies that take place in the splendid surrounds of the treaty grounds in the Bay of Islands and at Parliament.
If the pattern of the past holds, news media will cover very little about Waitangi Day beyond the treaty grounds. If protest and confrontation come to the treaty grounds this year, it should and needs to be covered.
Yet it is worth recalling that Waitangi Day is, for most New Zealanders, a gentle day for picnics and swims and get-togethers in the summer sun, with perhaps some reflection on the meaning of the day.
Waitangi Day and perceptions about it change with the times. Too often we forget how recent it is since the day has been formalised. Governor-General Lord Bledisloe gifted the grounds and Treaty House to the nation in 1932.
He wanted February 6 to be a day to recall our founding and reflect on our journey. On that first Waitangi Day, Bledisloe prayed that "the sacred compact made in these waters may be faithfully and honourably kept for all time to come".
Bledisloe would have blanched at the protests that became a perennial feature in the '70s, '80s and '90s; he might also have acknowledged that the protests reflected the shortfall in practice and sought, in the main, to remind the Crown to honour the promise the treaty outlined.
Those from countries with ancient histories often remark New Zealand is young, and with youth come inevitable tensions. Without the frictions, the debates and the questioning, New Zealand would be far blander and show far less potential as a unique culture with much to offer the world.
When the then Government sought to turn February 6 into New Zealand Day in 1971, Maori Affairs Minister Matiu Rata said the day was to be neither "a symbolic nor religious occasion" but the forerunner of an effort "to achieve a full sense of nationhood".
This was only common sense.
Nationhood grows and evolves. Time and circumstance tug and knead at national identity. Identity shifts and should reflect its times or it means little.
Historians record their many perspectives on national identity as it was. For the rest of us, the here and now can only be a fast-moving river of influences, a complex braid of multiple identities and perspectives and social and economic mores that confound simple definitions and deny slogans.
Yet Bledisloe would recognise shared principles that guide our nationhood. There should be fairness, the need to respect viewpoints and the awareness that we have rights and responsibilities that are important to protect and respect.
One of Waitangi Day's values is that it serves as a barometer of the health of the treaty relationship between the Crown and Maori. In the Human Rights Commission's annual review of race relations, the chapter on the treaty relationship reveals ups and down, highs and lows, but also a sense of new maturity. Last year, the Waitangi Tribunal published Ko Aotearoa Tenei: This is New Zealand.
The wide-ranging report examined the work of more than 20 government departments and agencies and considered how the treaty relationship might look once historic grievances are settled.
The tribunal said historic settlements had resulted in economic renewal and the growth of a significant Maori business base.
The Maori population is youthful and growing. The report said, "New Zealand sits poised at a crossroads, both in race relations and on our long quest for a mature sense of national identity." What might that look like?
The website posttreatysettlements.org.nz, hosted by the Institute of Policy Studies and Maori Studies at Victoria University, is one of many forums to spark debate on the paths New Zealand might take from those crossroads.
What should be the future for Maori representation in local and central government? How will the Crown and Maori co-manage natural resources? What impact will the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People have here?
Each year, the commission asks UMR Research to poll New Zealanders on their view of the Treaty of Waitangi. In 2011, about half (49%) felt they had a good sense of what the treaty, human rights and indigenous rights entailed.
This means the other half do not. However a significant number of those polled, 36%, said the Crown-Maori relationship needed improvement. And only a little more than half of New Zealanders (55%) agreed that the treaty was New Zealand's founding document, a response that has stayed about the same since 2007.
UMR polled 750 New Zealanders nationwide between November 25 and 29. The poll has a margin of error of 3.6%.
Polling of the next generation by the Ministry of Education last year revealed a striking contrast. In a study of civics and citizenship, the ministry found that two-thirds of 4000 year 9 students felt the treaty held personal importance. These young people were toddlers at the millennium.
They have grown up in the 21st century and they see the treaty relationship in a post-20th century way.
A clear majority of young New Zealanders say they regard the treaty as important to who they are. These young people will come to create their own version of Waitangi Day and the nationhood it symbolises. It will be great.
A summary and the chapter "The Treaty relationship in 2011" from the Review of Race Relations 2011 will be available on the commission website this month. The full review will be published in March before Race Relations Day, March 21.
• Joris de Bres is the Race Relations Commissioner, Human Rights Commission.
