Entry 941, on 2009-02-08 at 20:23:24 (Rating 4, Politics)
In 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 at about this time of year I wrote blog entries about our national day, Waitangi Day. Actually, is it our national day? I genuinely don't know! Anyway, the general theme of past rants has been that Waitangi Day is meaningless to most New Zealanders. A poll at the New Zealand Herald web site seems to support this: only a quarter thought it was our national day, about 15% thought it was a commemoration of the treaty it is named after, and the rest thought it was just a day off work.
Depending on how you interpret the statistics from previous years this might be seen as an improvement (believe it or not) but I think it continues to reflect how New Zealand's national identity has been damaged by what is essentially a divisive, irrelevant, and politically correct interpretation of the founding of our country.
I've said it all before in past blog entries so there's little point on elaborating on it here, but after experiencing the general apathy on Waitangi Day I think its no wonder that New Zealand is so often viewed as a country with no consistent national identity.
In future we should continue to celebrate Waitangi Day because the treaty is an important part of our history, but I think we need a real national day, New Zealand day, where all the cultures which exist in our country are celebrated, the present and future is treated as more relevant than the past, and everyone feels like they can identify with. Oh, and we get another day off work!
Comment 1 by Anonymous on 2009-02-10 at 18:14:49:
We need a new national anthem and a new flag before we get a new national day. How can we have a national identity when we have borrowed the design of our flag from someone else?
Comment 2 by OJB on 2009-02-11 at 10:33:03:
I totally agree. A new flag and a more inspiring anthem (minus references to god would be good) would make a difference, I think. I quite like this one.
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