From Clutha to Waitangi: A southern mayor’s search for knowledge on our national day
Sunday, 2 February 2025
Bryan Cadogan is the mayor of a district that does not have a marae.
“Six thousand, seven hundred square kilometres, and not a single marae in the Clutha district,’’ he said.
“We’re so different down here, we don’t even know we’re different’.’
As he nears the end of his 16-year mayoralty of the largely rural district south of Dunedin, Cadogan is heading to Waitangi for the first time this week to immerse himself into our culture - an experience he says is not the same in the deep south.
“I sort of know what Waitangi Day is, but then I don’t. As a New Zealander I want to experience what it’s all about. Although I always love the Waitangi Day celebrations that we have with Ngāi Tahu in Clutha, I’m heading north this time.
“There’s nothing worse than being 65 and being too frightened to experience something new and to learn new things’’.
Cadogan is proud of the relationships he has built with iwi in the south - first out of necessity as he took on the mayoralty, and then because he was eager to learn more about New Zealand’s history and culture.
“I see it as a huge privilege to be involved in that relationship and it was a big responsibility. I was very nervous when it started and it’s had to evolve which has meant I have had to evolve and learn too.
As well as being mayor, Cadogan is also a farmer and grew up in the shearing sheds in the deep south.
“That gave me some exposure to Māori culture that I didn’t always understand; the south does not always have an appreciation or understanding of our nation’s culture.”
“It’s quite obvious that the Scottish model is what we’re based on when it comes to doing things down here I think. You couldn’t get more chalk and cheese than the south to the north.”
Data from Infometrics shows the Clutha district's total Māori population was 2,740 in 2024, up 1.1% from a year earlier. The population is growing - the data shows Māori population growth in the district averaged 3.2% per year over the five years to 2024 compared with a Māori population growth of 1.9% per year in New Zealand.
“When I first spoke on the marae at Ōtākou [on the Otago Peninsula] I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, but now I can welcome people to Clutha with a very basic welcome in te reo. I want to have more of an understanding and more of a national view of things to see where we all fit in,’’ he said.
That welcome is not always met with respect, and Cadogan has borne the brunt of racism first-hand.
“The reaction to that when I first started doing it was quite extraordinary, it brought out some racial tension.
“When I open a meeting with a Māori greeting you can usually see there’s a few people in the audience that are not happy about it - you can see it in their eyes. They quite often want to come and have a wee chat about it later,’’ he said.
Cadogan also chaired one of then local government minister Nanaia Mahuta’s working groups for the previous government’s Three Waters legislation, which proposed that councils worked with mana whenua to manage water assets.
Around the same time he hit the headlines for telling Stop Co Governance Tour leader Julian Batchelor to ‘’get out of town’’ in Balclutha, and refused to apologise when an online petition called for him to do so.
“During that time I had my eyes prised open wide as to the degree of racism and the hostility by some people, if anyone tries to look at things from a wider perspective. I was threatened and suffered personal attacks during this time for speaking up.”
Last year Cadogan spent Waitangi Day at Te Rau Aroha Marae in Bluff in Southland, but this year he and wife Ally will hire a campervan (at their own personal cost) to travel from Auckland to Waitangi to visit for the first time.
“We’ll immerse ourselves in everything that’s going on. I want to be exposed to and to immerse myself into our culture and to experience what Waitangi Day is all about.”
He’s aware of the optics - a Pākehā man of retirement age, turning up at the marae.
“I’m 65 years old and about to retire – so for my wife and I to be asking these questions genuinely for the first time, it’s something I wish I’d done sooner.’’
They will be staying on the Lower Treaty Grounds, and Cadogan will be one of the very few sitting mayors from the South Island to have attended Waitangi Day events at Waitangi itself.
As hearings for the Treaty Principals Bill continue, he is aware that not all at Waitangi may be commemorating the day.
“I hope it will be a day of celebration for everyone this year, but I’m well aware that it may not be.
“I’m quite concerned about where our nation is going and the bill has caused some members of our society to become quite emboldened. The conversation has become totally one-sided and I think if we’re going to move on as a nation we have to have a conversation that involves both sides,’’ he said.
“Part of that is learning, which is what I intend to do.’’
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