Happy Waitangi Day!

While half of the US is voting, we have a national holiday here in New Zealand. Waitangi Day is New Zealand's National Day, but not an Independence Day like we're familiar with as Americans. New Zealand didn't make a hard break from the United Kingdom so the concept of independence doesn't really apply here. The Union Jack is still on the flag, the Queen is still on most of the coins and bills and from what we can tell, being part of the British Commonwealth is still seen as a positive here by most of the population.

So in that vein, it shouldn't be too surprising that the National Day commemorates when New Zealand became part of the British Empire, not when New Zealand became a nation. Back in 1840 on this day, the Maori and the British signed the Treaty of Waitangi. Britain got a new colony and the Maori got rights to their land. But it didn't take long for the Pakeha , the Maori name for the white Europeans, to break the deal. Sounds a lot like what happened in America between the Europeans and the Indians.

As you might guess, this is a controversial holiday here in New Zealand. Lots of protests and public debate. The prime minister hasn't attended the commemoration ceremonies at the site of the treaty because she and other politicians got "roughed up" at the 2004 ceremony. The leader of the opposition party did attend this year - must be an election year...