The First Waitangi Day - Waitangi Day

• Waitangi Day - A History
• The First Waitangi Day
• Waitangi Day 1940s-50s
• Waitangi Day 1960s
• Waitangi Day 1970s
• Waitangi Day 1980s
• Waitangi Day 1990s
• The Treaty House
• Biographies
• Image and Media Gallery
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Lord Bledisloe's Gift and the 1934 Celebrations

When the Governor-General, Lord Bledisloe, gifted the treaty house and grounds at Waitangi to the nation in 1932 he hoped that the site would become a national memorial, symbolising the notion that the treaty had initiated a unique relationship between the indigenous and the colonising peoples.

This partnership was reflected in the membership of a trust board set up to develop the property; it included Kirihi Te Riri Maihi Kawiti as a representative of northern chiefs of 1840. The partnership was also marked by a decision to build a whare runanga to stand near the treaty house (and finished in 1940). In both the trust board and the building project, northern chief Tau Henare took a leading role. He was succeeded in 1940 by his son, James Henare, who would long continue to work for recognition of the treaty.

In February 1934 Bledisloe's gift was marked by celebrations and a pattern for subsequent events was established. It involved two sites - the treaty house grounds (where the whare runanga would be built) and Te Tii marae close by - several organising bodies (Maori, Pakeha and government) and Bledisloe's prayer that 'the sacred compact made in these waters may be faithfully and honourably kept for all time to come'. A second prayer hoped that the two races might unite as one nation through Christianity - his interpretation of Lieutenant-Governor Hobson's words at the 1840 signing - 'He iwi tahi tatou' ('Now we are one people').

For the 8-10,000 Maori from throughout the country who attended the celebrations the event represented symbols of national identity additional to those understood by the government and the public. They looked back to 1834, when northern tribes had chosen a national flag at Waitangi, and the following year, when they had issued a declaration of the country's independence [external link]. These events were to hold a special significance for Maori as recognition of their independent status pre-1840. Maori and Pakeha perceptions of past and present events, clearly at variance in 1934, had found a stage at Waitangi on which the interplay of relationships - past and present - would be repeated. There would inevitably be clashes.

Next page: Waitangi Day 1940s-50s