Waitangi Day Address 2007

Ladies and Gentlemen, I greet you in the languages of the realm of New Zealand; English, Maori, Cook Island Maori, Niuean and Tokelauan - Kia Ora, Kia Orana, Fakalofa Lahi Atu, Taloha Ni

It is a great privilege to speak on my first Waitangi Day as Governor-General.  On this day in 1840, in the far north of our country, the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi between Maori chiefs and the British Crown began to take place.

In these early years of the 21st century, it is a long time back to that date now.  We look back with the knowledge that the period since has seen New Zealand's development into a mature nation - and a place which is looked to by others, with respect and with warm regard. 

Ours is a country the cultural prosperity and distinctiveness of which owe much to Maori, who came here many hundreds of years ago.  They made those first connections between place and people that have, ever since, been a fundamental influence on the way we live here.

But the tangata whenua, the original inhabitants of this land, have been joined by people from around the world - British, of course; then people from other European nations, the Pacific, Australia, Asia, the Americas and Africa.  Their children have been born as citizens of New Zealand, representative both of the promise seen in this country, and the commitment made by those who have journeyed to it. 

I have met with many New Zealanders, some newly arrived, some whose families have been here for generations, and in the last two days have taken part in events marking our national anniversary.  I have been to Waitangi and Porirua, and to FrankKittsPark - just a kilometre or two away from here.  At these places, and in many parts of New Zealand, people have come together in reflection, celebration, commemoration and debate, and in the sheer enjoyment of leisure with families and friends. 

The 167 years since 1840 have also seen conflict and argument, as well as progress and growth.

The facts of any country's past, tangle and re-sow themselves like the mangroves, in the Waitangi estuary.  I do not intend today to attempt to describe cause or counter-cause or chronology.  But I do note that conflict in our country, has in part centred on the Treaty, the extent to which its provisions have been observed, and out of the pain of those who have been denied opportunities rightfully theirs. 

Nevertheless, it is a paramount truth of New Zealand's history, that the fact of the Treaty gives all of us a stake in this nation.  It gives us a mandate for the contribution that each one of us might make.  It gives us a genuinely shared basis for moving forward; and we can cite it whether we are tangata whenua or, in the phrase of former Waitangi Tribunal Chairman the Hon Justice Eddie Durie, tangata tiriti, people here by virtue of the agreement made at Waitangi. 

No doubt this was an agreement born of mixed motives.  But in those mixed motives we can certainly discern the element of good will, an approach that says 'you are here and I am here, and we have it in us to find the best of our future together'.

I hope that this is an approach we can maintain as the central questions of our identity are posed and posed again.  Historian Dr Jock Phillips has said that the evolution of what it means to be a New Zealander, is one of the major issues of this new century.  What is it that defines the people we are?  How do we best understand, and enhance, the character of our nation?  And what do we owe each other, our fellow-citizens of this country?

I have in recent times, for reasons not entirely unrelated to this day, been looking through the work of various New Zealand writers, seeking out perspectives on aspects of our history. 

In 1990, on the 150th anniversary of the first signing of the Treaty, CK Stead published his poem 'At the Grave of Governor Hobson'.  William Hobson, New Zealand's first Governor, died only two years after the Treaty was signed, and is buried in Auckland amid the oaks and shadows of the SymondsStreetCemetery, between Newton and Grafton in Auckland.  Beside the 'raised white slab' that marks the grave, Stead observed that the Governor 'fashioned what time, and the times that live in us, required'. As do we.

What is required of us now, I believe, is development of a national consciousness of the possibilities that are open to us - here in this Pacific nation where the light is clear and the sky so often blue.

The challenge of the Treaty as our founding document is to live up to the best impulses of those who first framed it, and put their names to it, and saw in it, the substance of a new kind of future.

The increasing diversity of our country has a clear potential to further enrich the lives of each one of us, to provide us with new cultural, social and economic opportunities. 

But we need to be receptive, creative and flexible in taking up these opportunities; we need to be able to rely on open-hearted civic engagement.  The communities of New Zealand - shaped as they are by demography, geography, ethnicity and clanship - have their various wisdoms to bring to bear on the kind of country we might best live in.  That knowledge must be able to be shared with confidence and trust, and received with insight and compassion. 

And no matter how imperfectly we translate ourselves to each other, the translation should continue to be attempted.  That is the way a country has a conversation.  That is a way in which we can talk ourselves through to articulating the common values and enduring resolutions of nationhood.

As Governor-General for a term, I look forward to listening for signs of this conversation as I travel around the country over the next five years - and taking part in it.  I look forward to learning the histories of different communities, to hearing about their experiences and to knowing the part each has played in New Zealand's larger story.

My own New Zealand story began during the first half of the last century when my Indo-Fijian family settled here.  I was born in Auckland, and when I am in my home city now, or in Wellington, or when my wife Susan and I visit any part of New Zealand, we know that we live in a very special country.  This is a place made vivid not only by the culture of the Maori who came to New Zealand first, but by the contributions of all who have migrated and settled here. 

I am reliably advised that approximately 167 children will be born in this country today - one could say one child for every year since the Treaty was signed.  These children will be Maori, European, Pacific, Asian, and African by background - all of them New Zealanders.  And the life of each one of them will be shaped in large part by the attitudes and actions of those they live among. 

On this, the most significant date of our national calendar, let us acknowledge that we have many reasons for genuine celebration.  And in that spirit, let us commit ourselves as New Zealanders to honouring this day and making it meaningful - not only for the future of our nation's children, but for all the children of our nation's future.

No reira tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa.