Waitangi: A choice between unity and a sideshow
Sunday, 1 February 2026
Tracy Watkins is editor of The Post and Sunday Star-Times
OPINION: There are three types of politicians when it comes to the Waitangi Day celebrations at Waitangi.
The first are the provocateurs like David Seymour. The ACT leader thrills at the prospect of a national-stage brawl. For Seymour, being heckled - or, like former National leader Don Brash before him, becoming a target for mud-throwing protesters - is a political win. He isn’t speaking to the assembled crowd. He’s speaking to a base that views Waitangi with scepticism and likely has no intention of ever visiting. For him, the friction is the point.
Then there is Winston Peters. Despite a career spent railing against “iwi elites”, te reo and Treaty clauses, Peters is Northland to his core. He will be among friends. There will be barbs, but he gives as good as he gets. In the North, Winston is a known quantity; he has nothing to fear from the heat of the marae.
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And then there is the Prime Minister.
Christopher Luxon, like many of his predecessors, has struggled with Waitangi’s gravitas. In 2025, he opted to spend the day with South Island iwi Ngāi Tahu.
He is not the first; going right back to Helen Clark, successive prime ministers have tried to sell the idea that Waitangi Day does not belong to Waitangi alone.
For politicians, there are two distinct parts to Waitangi. Major events, like the Iwi chairs forum, and the pōwhiri for politicians, occur the day before. Waitangi Day itself on the Treaty grounds is a more formal event.
The powhiri is usually where the most robust debate happens. It is often also the flashpoint for protest.
John Key spent elsewhere in 2016 after failing to get an assurance he would have speaking rights, and because of security concerns.
Bill English similarly decided to go elsewhere in 2017 after he was refused speaking rights, with protocol being cited as the reason.
But what has weighed most on the mind of recent prime ministers is that by going to Waitangi they are turning themselves into a target for hostility and protest.
The concerns about speaking rights are valid. When a prime minister speaks it is as the voice of the Government of the day. Denying speaking rights cuts across the Government’s right to be heard on issues that are the focus of protest and other speakers.
Equally valid is the concern around security.
The pōwhiri in particular has historically attracted physical confrontation; Clark and Key were variously jostled and obstructed by protesters.
Those are the images that dominate the headlines and rhetoric around Waitangi Day; any other messages are drowned out.
It has become the prevailing political view that there is no political upside for the prime minister in attending - the exception being a charismatic politician like Jacinda Ardern, who turned it into a message of reconciliation.
No doubt all of this weighed on Luxon’s mind while he debated where to spend Waitangi this year.
But as we enter an election year, the luxury of distance has evaporated.
On Friday afternoon Luxon’s office confirmed that he would return to Waitangi this year, and attend the pōwhiri on February 5. Waitangi Day itself he will spend in Auckland.
In truth, the decision to travel to Waitangi was probably taken out of Luxon’s hands after Ngāi Tahu announced it would be there Waitangi
In a historic announcement, Ōtākou upoko Edward Ellison and Te Rūnaka o Ōtākou chairperson Nadia Wesley‑Smith told The Press there will be no official Ngāi Tahu commemorations at Ōtākou Marae. Instead, Ōtākou Rūnaka will lead a Ngāi Tahu ope/group to Waitangi to stand in kotahitanga/unity with iwi of the motu/country.
“We believe that the political climate makes this a time when unity matters. We are looking forward to strengthening our ties with the kaitiaki [the guardians] of Te Tiriti and being part of the wider kaupapa [agenda] at Waitangi,” Ellison and Wesley‑Smith said.
“It is vital that iwi stand together to ensure the collective iwi voice remains strong,” a statement stressed.
When one of the country’s biggest and most powerful iwi breaks with tradition to travel to Waitangi in a show of unity it sends an unmistakable signal to the government that it must also be there in force.
Luxon now has two choices; he can play a cameo role - duck in and out, treating the event as a necessary box-ticking exercise while avoiding the “sideshow”.
Or he can seize the moment to speak over the top of his coalition allies. While Seymour and Peters play to their respective corners, Luxon has a rare chance to prove he can be a voice for national unity - rather than a passenger in a divisive debate.