Waitangi 2026

 

(Photo taken during 9 am service, Friday 6 February 2026, at Waitangi, Bay of Islands.)

I have visited Waitangi twice before - the place that is - but never for 6 February celebrations and commemorations. This year I targeted being at Waitangi for 6 February and was able to be there by 2 pm on Thursday 5 February, in time for a powhiri [formal welcome] for church leaders. Ideally one would be at Waitangi two or three days out from 6 February itself as various meetings and events take place, including a hui [forum] with leading politicians. This year's politicians hui was taking place as I arrived at Waitangi.

On Waitangi Day itself there is a lot going on, from events involving waka (canoes), food stalls, events/meetings focusing on specific themes or issues, a traditional naval parade around the middle of the day with 21 gun salute from a naval vessel moored out in the bay, and generally a fun and festive day with thousands of people. Most importantly, from a spiritual perspective, there is a well attended Dawn Service at 5 am and another service (similar but not exactly the same) at 9 am. I took part in both services (being invited to share in leading prayers in each service) and it was a privilege to do so.

A key figure in the preparation and leading of these services is Bishop Kito Pikaahu, Bishop of Te Tai Tokerau. I was glad to support Bishop Kito this year.

There are many things to be said each Waitangi Day and there is no shortage of news articles and opinion pieces to look up, read and reflect on, with this year being no exception. In what I offer as my reflection here I am attempting to say something I have not seen others say. I see no need to either repeat or to comment on what others have said, especially about the political "temperature" of this year's events, meetings and services.

Is Waitangi a "thin" place?

I am a sucker for natural beauty and ona previous visit to the Waitangi treaty grounds, I was blown away by the immense beauty of the location and its buildings. On any reckoning, it is a place of beauty: land meets sea meets trees meets historica houses. On Friday morning, sitting through two services, as part of wider celebrations of Te Tiriti, I was struck by the "thinness" of the place - a sense that heaven meets earth there as much as land meets sea. Althought it is 186 years since the signing in 1840, it felt like the signing was only last year, and somewhere nearby were the missionaries and chiefs, the Busbys and Hobsons who signed the treaty. Might we call the Waitangi treaty grounds one of NZ's "sacred spaces"? Can we properly deem that on 6 February 1840 a spiritual compact was formed between two peoples, even though the language is focused on more material matters of land, sea and sky, and governship and chieftainship?

Te Tiriti matters, not only as a document but as a cultural pivot

Moving through the remainder of the day, which was literally moving through throngs of many groups of friends and families as (I suppose) more than 10,000 people flocked to Waitangi, Maori and Pakeha, I was struck by the thought of how - notwithstanding many shortfalls and significant work-ons - we happily mingle, Maori and Pakeha, in a cultural, social, relational mixing which flows from 6 February 1840. Our history is different because of 1840. Different from the histories of, say, Australia, Canada, the United States of America, as well as of New Caledonia and Tahiti. Even though we have had long periods of neglect of Te Teriti and continue to have raging controversies over its active meaning for us in present times, nevertheless, Maori and Pakeha relationships have always been on a different footing to relationships in other countries between first peoples and new settlers. We might have been different as a nation but we are not, and that is due to Te Tiriti. Whatever we make of the wording of Te Tiriti, its signing is a pivotal moment in the development of our distinctive Kiwi culture.

Church-state relationships in NZ are ambiguous but the church was "there" when Te Tiriti was signed

Part of Bishop Stephen Lowe's sermon emphasised the role Bishop Pompallier played as one of the religious overseers to the process of Te Tiriti's wording being finalised and signed off. Indeed, if I have my facts correct, it was Pompallier as much as anyone whose influence pushed for the "Article 4" (verbalised but not written into the Treaty) which promised protection for differing religions in NZ. Other missionaries were involved, notably the Williams' brothers from CMS. What might the Treaty have been if the missionaries, Anglican, Catholic and Wesleyan had not been around? Perhaps more importantly, what might the Treaty have been without some specifically evangelical Christian minds at work in the British government and bureaucracy? We have never been a church-state and there is no formally defined state-church, yet our history records the church as being present for and in the background to this pivotal moment. As Christians we can be proud of that presence, and we can and should celebrate God at work on 6 February 1840. We also need to continue to assert the importance and appropriateness of the Dawn Service (and any later services) as vital to celebrations of Te Tiriti as anchored into the historical fact of the missionaries' role.