By Elliot Ikilei
Waitangi Day should be a celebration of how this nation came together, our common story, and how remarkably well it’s turned out in the bigger picture.
It shouldn’t be about guilt or grievance. It should not fuel division or redefine history to fit modern agendas.
Back on 6 February 1840, Māori chiefs and the Crown came to a straightforward yet profound agreement: New Zealand as one nation, under one set of laws, with equal rights and protections for all.
That pact delivered order, steadiness, and safety to these islands over the years. It built the bedrock for the New Zealand we live in; a land where folks from every background can raise families, start ventures, and form communities, all playing by the same fair rules.
The Treaty of Waitangi broke new ground by committing to equality before the law. We were building a shared path forward, something unheard of in other places where such pacts weren’t even on the table.
Article III guaranteed Māori the exact same rights as British subjects.
Not extra privileges.
Not divided setups.
Just the same.
That’s why Māori men got the vote in 1867, and when Kiwi women blazed a trail worldwide in 1893, it included Māori women right from the jump.
Equality wasn’t some side effect or late addition, it was core from day one.
The Treaty locked in united citizenship.
One government.
One legal system.
One rulebook for everyone.
That’s what made New Zealand stand out, forward-thinking, and able to outperform in just about every arena since.
That’s what made our country great.
Today, those core principles are attacked daily.
We are force-fed nonsense that the nation runs smoother with people treated differently according to race. That equality is “outdated”, and equal status is somehow “unjust”.
I don’t buy that racism, and neither do most Kiwis. It doesn’t line up with our everyday realities.
In real life, we get on with it, not obsessing over skin tone or bloodlines. We live, work, play, and build lives side by side.
I’m disgusted at how our comparatively solid race relations have been hijacked and perverted by activists, activist academics, activist media, activist politicians.
Hobson’s Pledge is here to defend these basic truths of equality.
As Dr Martin Luther King Junior once said: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
Or, as Captain William Hobson said at the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi: “He iwi tahi tātou,” meaning we are one people.
That powerful statement, that promise, drives us.
Activists consistently target us with smears and accusations.
Let them come.
We fight for equality and against anything or anyone seeking to undo that equality.
Waitangi Day prompts us to think on what we have achieved: a nation grounded in justice, joint accountability, and even-handed treatment.
These values deserve protecting.
If you stand for an equal New Zealand, one land, one people, equal under law, I urge you to mark Waitangi Day.
Push politics aside and zero in on what makes this place brilliant.
This isn’t just history.
This is the legacy we hand our children, and theirs, and theirs.
I pray you and yours have a proud, peaceful, and thoughtful Waitangi Day.
He iwi tahi tātou
We are one people,
Elliot
Elliot Ikilei is a Conservative Commentator and Spokesman for Civil Rights group Hobson’s Pledge
