Back to Waitangi Day, 1976

New Zealand Day 1975 passed quietly at Waitangi, perhaps because of Norman Kirk's recent death. Elsewhere there was little of the celebration of the national day by local communities that Labour had hoped for. Government funding was not made available and, beyond the odd ministerial letter of exhortation, local bodies were left to their own devices. Moreover, the concept of a national day needed time to take root, and it was not to be given this by the National government that took office at the end of 1975.

The Waitangi Day Act 1976 reinstated the name Waitangi Day, the government arguing that a number of representations had emphasised that the name recognised the significance of the treaty and its spirit. It seems too that Prime Minister Robert Muldoon, who had not liked the name change, saw this as a way to make some mark on the Waitangi front. Matiu Rata was probably right to see the move as part of an attempt to avoid creating a Waitangi Tribunal under the Treaty of Waitangi Act passed at the end of Labour's term.

Whatever the reason, the change of name had brought no great advantage. The concept of fostering a sense of nationhood through a New Zealand Day - though in its infancy - was lost in a little-debated political manoeuvre. Also lost was Rata's concept of a complementary relationship between a New Zealand Day (with a diminished focus on treaty issues) and an appropriate forum where treaty issues could be effectively addressed.

The name change repositioned the public holiday as a Maori-Pakeha event - no matter what the content of commemorations - and underscored the likelihood that Waitangi would continue to be the focus for any protests. From 1975, the organisation of annual events reverted in the main to northern groups and the day was very much a northern affair, despite the national holiday. The pattern at Waitangi had become well established: activities at the marae were followed by an event at the treaty grounds.

Given the direction of government policy on Maori issues, renewed protest was predictable, and this was not limited to Waitangi Day. During National's term of office (1975-1984), protest was expressed in stands taken at Bastion Point and Raglan over land disputes. The Waitangi Tribunal had finally convened briefly in 1977, only to go into recess for some time.