January 31, 2024
Waitangi place to walk the talk says local MP
Te Taitokerau MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi expects a big turn out of te iwi Māori at Waitangi over the next week building on the kotahitangia shown at the Turangawaewae hui ā motu.
The official Waitangi Day programme kicks off on Saturday with powhiri in the Treaty Grounds for Governor General Dame Cindy Kiro and for the Labour and Green parties.
Ms Kapa-Kingi says tension with the coalition government is making Māori think about politics.
“You’ve got this political awakening. That’s what I see. So in Waitangi, will be one of many places where people will come and walk their talk, they will walk their thinking, their intellectual Māori voices and thinking,” she says.
Mariameno Kapa-Kingi says at Sunday’s powhiri she will stand with tangata whenua while her Te Pāti Māori colleagues will walk on with the Kīngitanga and Rātana roopu.