Waitangi Day

Yesterday was a national holiday, named for the place where the Brits entered into a treaty with the Maoris.
I am gathering that there is a real national conflict about exactly where the Maoris and where the colonialists fit in the national identity.
When I asked the lady at the motel about it she said "I prefer to call it New Zealand Day- we're a new country."
At the Waitamo Caves, we went on 2 different trips. On one, the Maori guide talked about how the cave was owned by her people and all of the employees were descendants of the original owners. In the other cave, the Anglo guide described how the descendants of the owner of the farm above the cave litigated with the government from 1987 to 2003 about whether his family owned the cave.

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