December 02, 2021
Tiriti focus shifts online
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The chair of the Waitangi National Trust is promising some kind of virtual commemoration now the trust has ruled out in-person events at the Treaty Grounds on February 6.
Peter Tipene says the decision to scrap the Waitangi Day programme was made with public health advice and is in line with the position taken by iwi and district health boards in Te Taitokerau that low vaccination rates mean such gatherings could become super-spreader events.
He says the decision was made early to lessen its economic impact.
The focus now is putting together a virtual online or broadcast event.
“Waitangi Day continues. The in-person part may not but the discussions and the discourse and the debates about what the Treaty of Waitangi is and what it means now and into the future – I keep saying we are only 18 years away from the bicentennial – we really need to be hearing the voices and have that discourse about what Te Tiriti o Waitangi is and what it means in our lives,” Mr Tipene says.
Māori Crown Relations Minister Kelvin Davis says the Government understands and supports the Waitangi National Trust’s decision, and will work with it on the virtual Waitangi Day proposal.