ℍ𝕚𝕡𝕜𝕚𝕟𝕤 ‘𝕣𝕒𝕪 𝕠𝕗 𝕤𝕦𝕟𝕤𝕙𝕚𝕟𝕖’ 𝕒𝕞𝕠𝕟𝕘 𝕕𝕚𝕤𝕔𝕠𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕟𝕥 𝕒𝕥 𝕎𝕒𝕚𝕥𝕒𝕟𝕘𝕚, 𝕤𝕒𝕪𝕤 𝕙𝕠𝕤𝕥

𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕃𝕒𝕓𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕝𝕖𝕒𝕕𝕖𝕣’𝕤 𝕒𝕡𝕡𝕣𝕠𝕒𝕔𝕙 𝕥𝕠 𝕎𝕒𝕚𝕥𝕒𝕟𝕘𝕚 𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕞𝕖𝕞𝕠𝕣𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟𝕤 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕤𝕡𝕖𝕖𝕔𝕙 𝕒𝕥 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕡𝕠𝕝𝕚𝕥𝕚𝕔𝕒𝕝 𝕡ō𝕨𝕙𝕚𝕣𝕚 𝕙𝕒𝕤 𝕓𝕖𝕖𝕟 𝕟𝕠𝕥𝕖𝕕 𝕒𝕤 𝕒 𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕟𝕕-𝕠𝕦𝕥; 𝕡𝕣𝕖𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕒 𝕡𝕠𝕤𝕚𝕥𝕚𝕧𝕖 𝕧𝕚𝕤𝕚𝕠𝕟 𝕒𝕞𝕚𝕕𝕤𝕥 𝕡𝕒𝕝𝕡𝕒𝕓𝕝𝕖 𝕕𝕚𝕤𝕔𝕠𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕟𝕥

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he chair of the Waitangi National Trust says among the politicking and challenges of what has fast become a controversial pōwhiri, Chris Hipkins’ vision for moving forward together presents “a ray of sunshine”.

Pita Tipene said the Labour leader offered “a whole lot of hope” in his promises to return each year, to listen, and then adapt how everyone moved forward together.

While David Seymour – and the response to his comments – captured attention and headlines on Wednesday, Hipkins had been embarking on quiet conversations throughout the week.

The result of those conversations was a speech given off the cuff that spoke of celebrating differences in a way that allowed everyone to move forward as a nation.

“Responsible political leaders light the path forward, they don’t exploit division and fear that comes from the fear that uncertainty creates,” Hipkins said – receiving applause and an unusually positive response from the hau kāinga (home side).

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On Wednesday, politicians from National, Labour, the Greens, Act and NZ First descended on Waitangi, with political leaders welcomed to Te Whare Runanga at the upper Treaty Grounds before a series of speeches from political leaders and responses from the hau kāinga.

The haka pōwhiri saw the coalition Government ministers challenged, particularly the Act leader at a time his Treaty Principles Bill is in the spotlight.

Before the pōwhiri even began, protesters from Toitū Te Tiriti lined the upper Treaty Grounds before turning their backs and walking away from the politicians.

Those who challenged the contingent of parliamentarians had been standing in the scorching sun for an hour before the pōwhiri began, but once the politicians arrived they sprang to life, laying down the wero (challenge). Shouting could be heard from some of the kaiwero (challengers), another clipped the taki (branch) that was laid down for Seymour.

Later, NZ First minister Shane Jones would criticise the way the taki was laid down, referring to what he believed was a degradation of what he considered the appropriate tīkanga.

Ahead of Waitangi, Jones told Newsroom he believed the pōwhiri had become too political; a statement he repeated on Wednesday, calling the pōwhiri a “circus”.

“The pōwhiri is no longer a welcome ceremony, it’s an opportunity to tally up the list of woes and grievances – and in a democracy no-one can stop that from happening, but it should not be the dominant feature of a Māori welcome ceremony,” he said.

He then threatened to withhold any future Government funding from the Waitangi National Trust should the hau kāinga not return to what Jones considered to be tīkanga, in a move that caught Jones’ Cabinet colleagues off-guard and was referred to as an “abuse of power” by both the Greens and Labour.

Tipene said while the national trust was grateful for the support from successive governments, it was unfortunate Jones had framed the grants this way, “because nobody likes to be bought off with pieces of silver”.

On the paepae, the first speaker for the hau kāinga opened by saying, it was not easy to speak on this day “because our hearts are weeping”.

While paying respect to those past, he also acknowledged the former Māori Health Authority, then referred to last year’s hīkoi to Parliament.

“The land continues to rumble, and the dust has not settled from the thousands who marched … That fire still burns in the hearts of our children and our grandchildren.”

Rather than a waiata in support of the kaikōrero, Ngāpuhi stood to perform a famous haka of the iwi, with those who had welcomed the politicians coming forward to face them on the marae ātea.

With the floor opened to speeches, Minister for Māori-Crown Relations Tama Potaka spoke of his position within the coalition Government, being caught “between a rock and a hard place”.

He said his “ears have been whipped by the thousands”, and spoke about being called a kūpapa, or traitor – a comment he refused to address more fully during the press conference following the pōwhiri.

In defence of himself, Potaka quoted scripture, talking about loyalty: “You must bow down to those friends that you support.”

While Potaka used his press conferences to distance himself from the Treaty Principles Bill and turn the narrative to Māori development in areas of education and the economy, he used his speech to reiterate his belief in the mana of the Treaty.

“Tino Rangatiratanga will not die,” he said.

Potaka’s message was met with discontent as a group of wāhine from Te Tai Tokerau, cloaked in red blankets bearing messages in support of the Treaty and Ngāpuhi sovereignty, stood and turned their backs.

Ahead of the pōwhiri, the home side had decided this would be an appropriate action to take in response to those they did not agree with. Each person was free to turn their backs at any time. And while many expected this response to be directed towards David Seymour, it was also directed at Potaka and Jones.

While the response to Potaka’s speech set the scene, the response to Seymour took things up a notch.

Seymour began his speech by talking about his party’s goals for the Treaty, which he set down when he travelled to Waitangi two years ago: to cherish the Māori language and culture, to right the wrongs of the past, and to give each child an equal chance to flourish.

“Since then I’ve held to these goals and promises. Some who heard my words here and understood them have tried to pretend they didn’t,” he said.

“Instead they’ve poured poison in the ears of young people. They’ve said that I want to take away their mana, their reo, and their culture. Some of the poison goes so far it’s actually funny.”

By this point in his speech, the group of wāhine had already turned their backs. And in an unusual display, taumata or senior leaders sitting on the pae also stood and turned their backs. Among them was Kipa Munro, the head of Seymour’s hapū Ngāti Rēhia.

Then Seymour’s microphone was removed, then replaced, then removed and replaced again, making large portions of his speech inaudible. Jones later likened the moving microphone to “some sort of demonic force”.

“We’ve got 364 days to make points about David Seymour. So today, on the single day that’s our founding and our national day, the takeaway is a stoush between David Seymour and the paepae, where the paepae enabled the microphone to grow wheels and move around like some sort of demonic force,” he said

The moving mic wasn’t part of the tīkanga that was agreed to ahead of the pōwhiri, but Tipene said anyone who tried to make a big deal of it was “nitpicking”. In his view, the tīkanga was set down and it was followed on the day. Tipene told Newsroom the response was “tame”, and that was thanks to conversations about the need to bring the peaceful wairua of the Parliament hīkoi to Waitangi.

Speaking to media following the pōwhiri, Seymour said he didn’t feel intimidated by the challenges, in fact, he didn’t feel anything at all.

He said those who challenged him through haka, moving the microphone and turning their backs weren’t engaging in an exchange of ideas or debate. They argued that neither did Seymour – leaving both groups to continue talking past each other.

Hipkins used his press conference following the pōwhiri to lay into Seymour for being “inflammatory”, Luxon for not showing up as a leader, and Jones for creating an atmosphere of fear where people did not speak up against the Government for fear of having their funding cut.

But during his speech on the paepae, Hipkins spoke of unity, building nationhood, and what he’s learned during his week at Waitangi.

Ahead of Wednesday’s pōwhiri, Hipkins told Newsroom he increasingly saw the value in spending the full week in the north – something he had not historically done.

Meeting a mix of leaders and everyday people allowed him to hear what people had to say and how they felt about policies and leadership. This year, he said, people had re-engaged with him and with Labour.

Last year, hot on the heels of a devastating election loss, “the phone was off the hook”, he said. This year was different.

Earlier this week, the latest Talbot Mills corporate poll had Labour support up – the second poll this year that had the main opposition party ahead of the main governing party. The Post reported the latest poll had Labour on 34 percent, ahead of National’s 33 percent – on these results, the centre-left would have enough support to form a government.

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While the election was still a long way off, Hipkins said the sentiment had shifted. People at Waitangi – even those who had not voted for him last time – were keen to hear from him, and to let him know what they would want to see from a future Labour-led Government. Hipkins had regained his relevance.

Waitangi National Trust’s Tipene said the Treaty Principles Bill would not have a life beyond the select committee, but in some respects he believed that was “only the tip of the iceberg”.

It was clear from many of the speeches that the Government didn’t plan to change its mind on these matters, he said. But governments change.

Meanwhile, Hipkins’ message of engaging, listening and changing in an effort to move forward together – not as the same person with the same beliefs and attributes, but as one people who celebrate their differences – was “really uplifting”.

The applause Hipkins’ speech received was “unheard of”, Tipene said.

While much was made of the tīkanga observed during Wednesday’s pōwhiri – and some Ngāpuhi who had been travelling to Waitangi over the years told Newsroom they had never seen a pōwhiri like this before – Tipene said he believed it was par for the course. Rather than focusing on this aspect of the day, he implored people to look forward to the bicentenary of the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

“We have to keep looking ahead, and we have to have a nationhood that we’re all buying into.”

All New Zealanders needed to be brought along on the journey, and not made to feel scared of what the Treaty could bring, he said.

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