Treaty day turns sour for kiwi P.M.

By Grant Holloway
CNN.com Writer

WAITANGI, New Zealand (CNN) -- New Zealand has celebrated its national day, Waitangi Day, with what has now become a familiar round of protests and public confrontation.

The national holiday commemorates the signing in 1840 of a treaty between the native Maori of New Zealand and the British government called the Treaty of Waitangi.

The treaty gave the British government the sole right to purchase land from the Maori in return for wide-ranging protection of Maori rights and status as British citizens.

However the national day is now more commonly marked by Maori groups and their supporters protesting over grievances on land and resources.

This year about 200 protestors, carrying a banner that said, "honor the treaty", joined those at the church service and performed a haka, or Maori war dance, as the preamble to the treaty was being read.

Earlier the demonstrators had marched from Paihia, in the far north of New Zealand, across the Waitangi Bridge to the Treaty House grounds and gathered around a flagpole under the watchful eye of the police.

This year's commemorations were a source of political embarrassment for New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark, who refused to attend the Waitangi service.

Clark says she was insulted and abused at the last service she attended and she banned any New Zealand government representation at this year's commemoration.

However a chorus of criticism saw a partial backdown, whereby two of her ministers of Maori origin were allowed to attend a hui, or formal public discussion, at Waitangi.

The decision to allow the ministers to attend was not officially announced until late Monday, heightening perceptions that Clark has made a hash of this year's Waitangi Day arrangements.

Earlier Monday Clark was still being reported as saying a government presence at Waitangi would be a "distraction" from the efforts of senior Maori leaders to restore dignity to it. Clark denied she was under pressure to go to Waitangi.

The "overwhelming feedback" from the public was that the prime minister should not be subjected to the indignity and confrontation of past Waitangi Days, she said.

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