Dr Bryce Edwards: The Quiet War at Waitangi 2026

Many expected fireworks at Waitangi this year. In an election year, with the Government’s record on Treaty issues still fresh and raw, the annual commemorations looked set to be a battleground. Instead, the week turned out to be remarkably calm on the surface. And deeply fractured underneath.

The real story of Waitangi 2026 wasn’t about Māori versus the Crown. It was about Māori versus Māori, and an opposition that seems incapable of getting its act together nine months out from polling day.

Centrist: Ngāpuhi talks face ultimatum as government pushes for single settlement

The government is signalling the clock is ticking on Ngāpuhi Treaty talks, with Treaty Minister Paul Goldsmith warning negotiations “can’t be as long as forever” and should conclude by 2040.

NZ First’s Shane Jones, who is drafting a Member’s Bill to force a single Ngāpuhi settlement, said taxpayers had already spent “well beyond $20 million” and could not afford endless delays.

Lawrie Knight: Fact checking Waitangi Tribunal claims

Evidence that Northern Maori knew they were ceding sovereignty to the Crown when they signed the Treaty of Waitangi - fact checking the Waitangi Tribunal 2014 findings and the 2023 findings released on the 8^th of December 2023.

The Waitangi Tribunal has stated in it's 2014 inquiry into Te Paparahi o Te Raki, that the Māori who signed the Treaty in the Bay of Islands and Hokianga in 1840, never ceded their sovereignty to the Crown, nor did they cede their authority to make and enforce laws over their people and territories. This view has been confirmed in the 2023 Waitangi Tribunal report dealing with Northern Maori claims.

John Robinson: Destroying New Zealand: the sovereignty of Ngapuhi hapu

When talking of the outrageous Waitangi Tribunal ruling that Ngapuhi did not recognise British sovereignty, nor the sovereignty of today’s New Zealand, I pointed out that Ngapuhi were in fact at the forefront of asking for British intervention. It was suggested that I pull together a list of actual Ngapuhi actions leading to 1840, and following. Here is the result.

Bruce Moon: Ngapuhi Gave Up Their “Sovereignty”- It Is False To Deny It!

Traditional Maori structure was tribal and hierarchical. Intertribal warfare was the norm. Violence was endemic.  Think of the enthusiasm with which muskets were adopted and tens of thousands of Maoris killed in the tribal Musket Wars. Think of the slaughter by Ngapuhi at Mauinaina, Te Totara and Matakitaki!  Chiefs and leaders held power as long as they were unbeaten by rivals. Those that lost, and those under their protection, suffered brutally with loss of autonomy, destruction of their lifestyle, loss of what they possessed: taonga, (goods) and other possessions, but duly guaranteed to them[i] and all New Zealanders in the Treaty. The winners of warfare on the other hand took control, enforced amongst other things by ritual executions, cannibalism, slavery, prostitution and headhunting.

To put it simply – in warfare, winner took all.

Mike Butler: Tribes compete in Auckland claim

It was only a matter of time that some tribe would claim the city of Auckland. Then, lo and behold, when the frail, intellectually challenged Maori king did just that on Friday, a second claim for the City of Sails was revealed.

First, Maori king Tuheitia told more than 500 people at his annual speech at Turanagwaewae Marae that he was determined to launch a claim for greater Auckland.(1)

Mike Butler: Gunpoint treaty threat and other lies

Hawke's Bay elder Jerry Hapuku spoke to the Hawke’s Bay Today newspaper for a Waitangi Day story this year. Maybe the excitement of being interviewed blurred the line between fact and fiction so he told a story about his ancestor, chief Te Hapuku, being forced to sign the Treaty of Waitangi at gunpoint.

That’s news to me I thought when I saw the headline, having read a lot of regional history, so I checked historian Angela Ballara’s description Te Hapuku and the treaty in her biography of him in the Encyclopaedia of New Zealand. Ballara is a current member of the Waitangi Tribunal and her writings are very pro-Maori.

Bruce Moon: What really happened at Waitangi on that day

It is time to set out what really happened at some critical moments on New Zealand's history.

From Hobson's brief from the Colonial Office, 14th August 1839: "The Queen ... disclaims ... to govern them ... unless the free intelligent consent of the natives, expressed according to their established usages, shall first be obtained."

At Waitangi on 5th February 1840 in his opening remarks, Hobson stated "You yourselves have often asked the King of England to extend his protection unto you.  Her Majesty now offers you that protection in this treaty ... But as the law of England gives no civil powers to Her Majesty out of her domain, her efforts to do you good will be futile unless you consent. (Our emphasis)

Mike Butler: Ngapuhi report reason to can tribunal

A report by the Waitangi Tribunal that argues Ngapuhi chiefs did not agree to cede sovereignty is deeply flawed and provides further evidence that the tribunal should be abolished.

The report that was released on Friday, He Whakaputanga me te Tiriti The Declaration and the Treaty: The Report on Stage 1 of the Te Paparahi o Te Raki Inquiry, is the first stage of the tribunal's inquiry into Far North treaty claims and looks at events before 1840. (1)

Ngapuhi leader David Rankin, a descendent of chief Hone Heke who was the first to sign the treaty, said that the tribunal's emphasis on the Declaration of Independence, which a few had signed in 1835, as being the basis of their relationship with the British, is a lie and that is not what the tribunal was told. (2)

Mike Butler: Campbell Live PR job for Ngapuhi

TV3 presenter John Campbell told his audience last week that he felt slightly ashamed admitting that he didn't know much about Northland tribe Ngapuhi and their mega treaty payout expectations, so he grabbed his microphone and cameraman and went north to learn. Sadly, all he revealed little more than we already knew. Chief Ngapuhi claimant Sonny Tau was first to speak:

Campbell: How much land did Ngapuhi lose?

Tau: We lost by dubious means 2.1-million acres of land

Firstly, why did Campbell and Tau use the word “lose”? The word "lose" means "be deprived of or cease to have or retain". Both Campbell and Tau used the words “lose” or “lost” in the sense that the Maori Anglican minister used it in a sermon on Waitangi Day last year. He said: “The missionaries taught us to pray and when we opened our eyes all our land was gone”. Campbell and Tau should be a bit more honest and say Ngapuhi sold most land in the area claimed as Ngapuhi tribal district.

Mike Butler: Ngapuhi dollar amount declines

The dollar amount for any Ngapuhi settlement is declining after a prediction yesterday from Labour MP Shane Jones that the government offer would be $250-million -- when the total demanded by claimants on Waitangi Day was up to $600-million.(1) From the Far North, Jones is of Te Aupouri and Ngai Takoto descent, as well as having Croatian, Welsh and English ancestry. Both Te Aupouri and Ngai Takoto have signed deeds of settlement. Jones even worked out for Ngapuhi the amount they would lose each year by not settling.

Without the Waitangi Tribunal's tortured arguments, the Ngapuhi claim for such a vast sum of taxpayers money cannot be justified. Note also that this claim is being negotiated before the Waitangi Tribunal has completed its inquiry into Ngapuhi claims. The government has made a decision without regarding the inquiry.

Mike Butler: Ngapuhi -- who gets the money?

The Government has recognised the mandate of the entity known as Tuhoronuku to negotiate the settlement of the Ngapuhi treaty claim, but more than 70 percent of tribal elders refused to attend a meeting on the issue on Saturday. What this most likely means is that all Ngapuhi heavy-hitters are getting themselves in the best position to receive the most money.

According to Radio New Zealand, the Ngapuhi tribal council, or runanga, which set up the Tuhoronuku board in 2011, claims majority support for negotiations but has run into strong opposition from an alliance known as Te Kotahitanga.(1)

Mike Butler: It’s bribe-a-tribe day

Big dollar amounts are being bandied about after Prime Minister John Key used his main national day speech to bribe Ngapuhi, New Zealand’s biggest tribe, into settling their grievances with the Crown. It’s election year and the lolly scramble has just begun.

Key offered an interim financial payment to “incentivise” the 125,000-member tribe to settle quickly. Ngapuhi runanga chair Sonny Tau gave a figure of $500-$600-million as he responded.

Reuben Chapple: Eyes Wide Open

The Waitangi Tribunal’s recent finding that Northland’s Ngapuhi tribes did not cede sovereignty to the Crown by signing the Treaty of Waitangi is arrant nonsense that deserves to be mercilessly deconstructed.

It appears the Tribunal uncritically accepted Ngapuhi’s assertion their ancestors believed Governor Hobson’s authority would apply only to white settlers, and that Maori would continue to be ruled, tribal-style, by their chiefs.

These claims are not borne out by the historical record. As outgoing Governor-General, Lord Bledisloe, observed in his 1922 farewell address: "In the Kingdom of the Blind, the one-eyed man is King, and he that does not know his own history is at the mercy of every lying windbag."

Bruce Moon: Ngapuhi did cede sovereignty

A claim that Far North tribe Ngapuhi never ceded either sovereignty or government is contradicted by the fact that a number of the 27 Ngapuhi chiefs attending the greatest assembly of chiefs ever – the 1860 Kohimarama Conference – confirmed the sovereignty of the Queen.

A report commissioned by grievance specialist Titewhai Harawira and released last month claimed that that Ngapuhi did not sign away their sovereignty to the British Crown and did not cede governance to the Crown either. The report says chiefs wanted the Crown to provide a governor who would take charge of its unruly British subjects living here.