Source: New Zealand Governor General

Kei aku rangatira o Ngāi Tahu, tēnā koutou. Nāu rā te karanga, kia haramai ahau, i tēnei rā o Waitangi. Nāu anō te tino mōhio, ki te manaaki tangata. Nā reira aku mihi nui. Tēnā koutou katoa.

I wish to specifically acknowledge: the Right Honourable Christopher Luxon, Prime Minister; the Right Honourable Gerry Brownlee, Speaker of the House of Representatives; Rear Admiral Mathew Williams, Vice Chief of Defence Force; Tā Tipene O’Regan, Member of the Order of New Zealand; Mr Justin Tipa, Chair of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, and your wider iwi leadership team; Mr Riki Tainui, representative for Ōnuku Rūnanga, and all representatives and whānau from Papatipu Rūnanga across Te Waipounamu.

And, finally, to all distinguished guests, including representatives from central and local government, and all who have travelled to be here today – tēnā koutou katoa.

Thank you for inviting me and my husband, Dr Davies, to Ōnuku, this beautiful place, to join with you in commemorating Waitangi Day this year. I know that the last Governor-General to attend commemorations at Ōnuku was my predecessor, Dame Patsy Reddy, six years ago, and I am honoured to be here today, in this very special part of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Standing in this place, bearing, as it does, such deep history, and looking out at this harbour, of such astonishing beauty, I cannot help but be reminded of the whakataukī: ‘Whatungarongaro te tangata toitū te whenua. As people disappear from sight, the land remains.’

I stand here and I think of those moments so significant in the history of Ngāi Tahu, Te Waipounamu, and Aotearoa, that have taken place here, on this whenua. I picture the HMS Herald entering Akaroa Harbour on the 28th of May 1840, and of Edward Williams and William Stewart coming ashore to explain the document they carried.

In the following days, your tupuna surely gave deep consideration to what this Treaty might mean for Ngāi Tahu: for their tamariki and mokopuna, and for future generations – many of whom are gathered here today. I imagine Iwihau and Hone Tīkao returning to this place, on the 30th of May 1840, and signing that seventh sheet of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Of course, it was also here, 158 years later, that the then Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Jenny Shipley, standing where I am now, delivered the Crown’s apology to Ngāi Tahu – expressing profound regret for the Government’s breaches of Te Tiriti in its dealings with your iwi, and initiating the process of redress and healing.

I wholeheartedly commend Ngāi Tahu for all that you’ve achieved in these intervening years. You continue to be great leaders, collaborators, and champions, not only for this region, but for all of New Zealand – across the spheres of education and agriculture; business and the arts; innovation and sustainability – and working always with the vision, generosity, and enterprise for which your iwi is so rightly renowned.

On that note, I wish to take this opportunity to again acknowledge Tā Tipene O’Regan. It has truly been one of the great honours of my term as Governor-General to present you, Tā Tipene, with your Order of New Zealand – our country’s highest civilian honour – for all you’ve done for Ngāi Tahu, and for Aotearoa.

It was the author and former Governor-General of Canada, John Buchan, who said: ‘The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.’ Thank you, on behalf of all New Zealanders, Tā Tipene, for the clarity, intelligence, and selflessness of your leadership, and the greatness you have elicited through your service over so many years.

Across all its endeavours, Ngāi Tahu continues to seek the very best outcomes for your people, and for this precious land. I was deeply impressed by your Climate Change Strategy, emphasising, as it does, not only the urgency of the issues, but a model for principled, collective action in facing them.

Perhaps most profoundly, it speaks to those often-neglected facts: that we are each a part of the natural world – and that, in the irreversible degradation and loss of the environment around us, we are, in turn, losing some deep and irreplaceable part of ourselves – inhabiting and sharing this beautiful, fragile earth which is our only home.

I was moved to find that the pou in this whare behind me represent not only rangatira from the Banks Peninsula, but from across the country – including my own tupuna. In doing so, it stands beautifully for the way that, no matter where we may be from, we are bound together as people of Aotearoa: for the enduring nature of the relationship we share, enshrined in our Treaty.

In such a way, I believe Te Tiriti o Waitangi to be this nation’s taonga: a gift given to us by our tupuna, and our guiding light towards a vision of nationhood conceived, debated, and pledged, at Waitangi, Ōnuku, and across Aotearoa.

As our minds begin to turn towards 2040, the bicentenary of Te Tiriti, and to the long-term future of this country, it is our rangatahi who will lead us there, guided by our elders. I urge us to do all we can to empower them – to be examples in the way we conduct ourselves; to hold onto our own youthful sense of hope and purpose; and to be there for each other, in the spirit of understanding, goodness, and grace with which our Treaty was signed, here, 185 years ago.

In this, our national project, I can think of no better guiding principle than the few, very simple lines of New Zealand poet, Jenny Bornholdt:

Always refer back
to the heart.
It is where
the world 
began.

My sincerest thanks once again to Ngāi Tahu for inviting and hosting us so graciously and generously here today. I wish you all the very best for the rest of your day of celebrations, and for your hopes and aspirations for these years ahead.

He ao te rangi ka uhia, he huruhuru, te manu ka tau. Tēnā tatau katoa.

MIL OSI