Waitangi Day marks the first signing of New Zealand's founding document: The Treaty of Waitangi or Te Tiriti o Waitangi in ...

New Zealand Maori activist Tame Iti gestures at the Waitangi Treaty House grounds ahead of Waitangi Day celebrations in Waitangi, northern New Zealand, Monday, Feb. 5, 2024.

A Waka, a Māori canoe, is paddled at at Waitangi, New Zealand on Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025, as the country begins to mark the anniversary of its founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi. Credit: AP ...

Ata mārie, Aotearoa New Zealand, and welcome to the New Zealand Herald’s live coverage of Waitangi Day. It is 183 years today since the first signatures were placed on what became our country ...

This year's Waitangi Day is bigger than any of the past 30 years, as Māori from all over Aotearoa unite against a controversial government bill that could change the Treaty of Waitangi.

Eventually, a national holiday was granted from 1974 onwards, but it was called “New Zealand Day”; however, only a few years later, the Waitangi Day Act 1976 reinstated the name to Waitangi Day.

In his message, King Charles says, “On this Waitangi Day, my first as King of New Zealand, I send my warmest greetings to the people of Aotearoa New Zealand.

The first time Matarora Smith worked Waitangi Day commemorations in Paihia, she felt the wairua (spirit) and whakapapa (genealogy) of the historic place.

Waitangi Day marks the first signing of New Zealand's Treaty of Waitangi or Te Tiriti o Waitangi in Māori between the British Crown and Māori chiefs in 1840.