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Waitangi Day

Waitangi Day: A History

1934	First Waitangi Day celebrated
1940	Centennial celebration
1950	Post-war celebrations
1960	The Waitangi Day Act The 1960s
1970	1970s: Protest A National Holiday New Zealand Day 1974 Back to Waitangi Day, 1976
1980	Confrontation and Disruption Labour Plays it Down
1990	1990: Sesquicentennial Partnership Proposals 1995 and Beyond

Content Author: Claudia Orange, historian
Web Pages:
Special thanks to the Alexander Turnbull Library for photographic material
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Waitangi Day commemorates the signing of a treaty at Waitangi on 6 February 1840 by a group of Maori chiefs and the British Government, represented by Lieutenant-Governor Hobson. The treaty was subsequently signed by other Maori chiefs in various locations throughout the country. The question of what obligations the Treaty of Waitangi placed on each side has been a subject of contention ever since.

This exhibition provides a brief history of how Waitangi Day has been commemorated since Governor-General Bledisloe gifted the treaty house and grounds to the nation in 1932. The gift and the events of 6 February 1840 were first officially commemorated there two years later. In the last 25�30 years the style and mood of the commemorations have been influenced by the increasingly heated debate surrounding the status of the Treaty of Waitangi in modern-day New Zealand.