Evidence is mounting for ANZAC Day becoming the national day for New Zealand.
Crowds gather like no other memorial day. The day goes on without complaints about protest or disturbance. It has become a day that appears safe for assuming a consensus about purpose and ways of celebration.
Argument grows for ANZAC Day to hold prominence above Waitangi Day, the day unique to Aotearoa New Zealand. The commemoration of the signing of the Treaty holds powerful reason to be observed as a day of primary recognition of nationhood.
Where, then, might the distinction between the significance of these two days be found? Why might ANZAC day be rising in public consciousness as the national day of self-recognition? Answers may be revealing of a distinction between living memory and the power of myth.
A Pakeha version of history places the events of Waitangi with the signing of the Treaty firmly in the past. New Zealand has moved on. The country and people bear little resemblance to that of 173 years ago. Despite the evidence, arguments abound purporting recognition of the injustices suffered by Maori since the Treaty. The Waitangi Tribunal exists to identify and transition degrees of remedy. Yet for Pakeha the events remain historic.
My understanding of Tikanga Maori reveals different insight. While the signing of the Treaty occurred in 1840 , the event and subsequent injustices continue to be contemporary for living memory. It is not a subject to be understood as past history, rather than living history. The significance remains as present as the events themselves were 173 years ago. The present contains all that has occurred and continues to occur in the name of the Treaty. For Pakeha such as me this understanding causes pause for considerable thought.
So how might the distinction between Maori and Pakeha views be reconciled? A beginning might be in understanding how we as a country look back to ANZAC Day and view the events through inherited memory. The memories are now inherited by three or more subsequent generations. Inevitably the stories have moved out of living memory and moved into the realm of myth. Meaning is sought where once living memory served as the content of the memorial.
ANZAC Day serves this country with the means to share a collective inherited memory. We may make what we like of the meaning drawn from the inheritance . Waitangi Day cannot provide such an opportunity for sharing an inherited memory. For Maori the power of contemporary living memory transcends generations and remains present. This is a distinction Pakeha and Maori need to find agreement with, a way forward and mutual respect we may share.
There may be inevitability that ANZAC Day will become the National Day, perhaps even, at a cost to the prominence of Waitangi Day. The first has the privileged status of becoming established myth, whereas, the second is likely to remain for a generation or two at least as a cultural work in progress.
This conclusion is hardly satisfactory to this writer. However, a working orientation of patience and hope for a creative and fruitful future for Aotearoa New Zealand may see Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day achieve a complementary significance.
Image: Keyword Picture
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