Waitangi Day

Waitangi Day is the national holiday in New Zealand. It is a public holiday, which is held each year on 6 February to celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi ( New Zealand's founding document) in 1840.

History

The Treaty of Waitangi was on February 6, 1840 in a large tent erected on James Busby's land at Waitangi in the Bay of Islands, signed. James Busby's house on this land is now known as the Treaty House. The Treaty made ​​New Zealand a part of the British Empire, guaranteed Māori rights to their land and gave them the rights of British citizens. There are significant differences between the English and the Māoriversion of the contract and this has led in practice since 1840 to debate what was really agreed upon contract. Māori have generally viewed the contract as a sacred pact, while Pākehā (white New Zealanders ) ignored him for many years. In the early twentieth century, however, some Pākehā began to see the Treaty as the founding document of their nation and a symbol of British humanitarianism. Unlike the few Pākehā Māori saw the agreement as a valid legal document, which must be strictly followed.