\u0100tea editor Liam R\u0101tana ponders exclusion, access, and the uncomfortable reality of flashing a media pass and being waved through into the roped-off area at Waitangi.<\/p>\n
Here I am, sitting on the edge of Te Ana o Maikuku \u2013 also known as Hobson Beach \u2013 at Waitangi. Small waves lap the golden sand as a constant stream of people walk up and down the hill behind me.<\/p>\n
Just three hours earlier, I stood here in the darkness of the dawn, rubbing my eyes along with a small crowd of people gathered for a dawn ceremony. Karakia, takutaku, and karanga ushered the sunrise. I felt privileged to understand what was happening \u2013 to be able to bask in the wairua of the moment.<\/p>\n
The people leading the kaupapa are descendants of some of the signatories of te Tiriti o Waitangi. They are versed in the knowledge of our t\u016bpuna. Many of them have grown up travelling to Waitangi every year. As children, they watched their grandparents and then parents lead these ceremonies. Now, they are privileged to take the reins.<\/p>\n
Te Ana o Waikuku at dawn on Waitangi Day. (Photo: Liam R\u0101tana).<\/p>\n
This beach is where William Hobson arrived 186 years ago aboard the HMS Herald. He got off his boat, walked up the same path still in use behind me, and signed te Tiriti o Waitangi under the authority of Queen Victoria. I imagine the early morning sky would\u2019ve looked quite similar back then to what it looks like now: anchor lights swaying atop the ship masts and moon light reflecting off the shimmering water. There wouldn\u2019t have been any street lights in the backdrop though, or drones flying around doing surveillance. I\u2019m privileged enough to remember a time when the skies here only had stars in them.<\/p>\n
I remember, because I\u2019m fortunate enough to have been to more Waitangi commemorations than I can count. My father would bring me here as a child. Back then, most of our time at Waitangi was spent around Te Tii Marae, Te Pou Rangatira, and all the wh\u0101nau camping in tents or sleeping in their cars. That is what I think of when I hear \u201cTent City\u201d. These were the sovereigntists \u2013 the wh\u0101nau that weren\u2019t here for the official services, but for the w\u0101nanga. They were the whakaminenga, the grassroots wh\u0101nau, the ones who knew more about constitutional law than some lawyers.<\/p>\n
A lot of what I learnt from just being in this environment was through osmosis. Discussions would often go into the early hours of the morning, with topics including He Whakaputanga, the language differences between the two treaty documents, treaty settlements and iwi elitism (though that wasn\u2019t a term I remember hearing much back then). The m\u0101tauranga and worldviews I was exposed to helped to inform my views and shape my identity today. A lot of what I am now involved in \u2013 the things I write about, roles I hold and views I have \u2013 come from those times and people.<\/p>\n
I often wonder if my dad would be rolling in his grave watching me now, rubbing shoulders with the politicians, iwi leaders and elitists he used to despise. Part of me likes to think he\u2019d be proud. I know for certain he\u2019d be making sure I was repping our hap\u016b, working towards its advancement in some way. In a strange way, I am.<\/p>\n
Often through the guise of my job, I talk to iwi leaders in control of hundreds of millions, attempting to glean an understanding of the inner workings of their entities. I watch politicians mix with the top brass of te ao M\u0101ori, learning how these relationships work in practical terms. I start to think I am figure out how the world operates, but as the saying goes: \u201cThe more you know, the less you know.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Thursday, I stood at the flagstaff as a group of activists gathered in the rain. At first, I was the only journalist there. I had been keenly following their build-up to Thursday\u2019s protest on social media. I knew they planned on disrupting the official proceedings, wanting to send a message to not only the government, but also their relations welcoming them on to the treaty grounds and Te Whare R\u016bnanga Marae.<\/p>\n
The group was upset at how the government had been treating M\u0101ori and they were angry their wh\u0101nau was \u201crolling out the red carpet\u201d for these people. The speeches from the group\u2019s leaders were akin to calls to battle, questioning how their own whanaunga could welcome what they claimed was \u201cone of the most overtly racist governments of recent years\u201d to Waitangi.<\/p>\n
As the p\u014dwhiri began, the group made its way from the flagstaff towards the roped-off section where the dignitaries \u2013 including leaders of all the major political parties and government ministers \u2013 stood awaiting the wero from the haukainga. Leaders of the protest group asked onlookers to move out of the way, but they didn\u2019t and instead forced the protesters to squeeze their way to the front. A few protesters attempted to breach the line, despite being asked by the haukainga and Waitangi National Trust not to. The police and other security guards were acutely aware of the planned protest. They formed a barricade on the dignitaries\u2019 side, preventing the protesters from being able to cause any disruption beyond their chants and waiata.<\/p>\n
A man is seen shouting in Christopher Luxon\u2019s direction as the prime minister speaks. (Photo: Hayden Donnell)<\/p>\n
Initially, I was standing to the side of the group, watching the events unfold. I saw members of the media on the dignitaries\u2019 side of the rope, taking photos and videoing the protesters from the front. Security desperately tried to get the media back behind the rope, but their requests fell on deaf ears. I jumped over to get a better view myself and was quickly approached by the nearest guard, who told me to get back. \u201cI\u2019m just like her,\u201d I said, pointing at another journalist standing on the same side of the rope.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The protesters again tried to breach the line, but were held back by their own wh\u0101nau, some of whom were wielding weapons. I stood there watching it all unfold from the other side of the rope. Once upon a time, I was just like them. The only difference now was that I had a red lanyard around my neck and a green bit of paper that said \u201cMedia Pass\u201d.<\/p>\n
Later in the day, I spoke with one of the senior leaders of the Treaty grounds. He was once a protester. I asked him if it felt strange being on this side of the rope now. Without batting an eyelid, he told me it didn\u2019t. \u201cThey have the opportunity to participate. We never had that,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
I wonder how accurate that statement is. The protesters weren\u2019t invited to the Iwi Chairs Forum. They weren\u2019t a part of the intimate meetings between politicians and iwi leaders in the backrooms of the Copthorne. They weren\u2019t at Shane Jones\u2019s party the night before. Instead, they held their own w\u0101nanga, created their own kaupapa, paddled their own waka.<\/p>\n
At the end of the p\u014dwhiri, the politicians make their way to another fenced off area where they answer questions from the mob of media lying in wait. There I am again, flashing that green bit of paper and getting within arm\u2019s reach of some of the country\u2019s most influential people. The protestors are nowhere near us now, unable to voice their concerns or ask the questions they would like to put to them. These days, that\u2019s my job.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u0100tea editor Liam R\u0101tana ponders exclusion, access, and the uncomfortable reality of flashing a media pass and being…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[26380,111,43,139,69,25394,13316,152157],"class_list":["post-272715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-atea","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-protest","tag-protests","tag-waitangi-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}