New Zealand will benefit when it embraces its history “warts and all”, historian Vincent O'Malley told a crowd of hundreds at a Waitangi Day commemoration in Te Matau-a-Māui Hawke's Bay.

“The purpose of remembering isn't to sow division and disharmony but actually to bind us together as a nation that can openly and honestly confront its past,” O'Malley said on the riverbank at Clive, near where Kahungunu chiefs signed Te Tiriti on June 24 1840.

“That's not about assigning blame, it's just about growing up as a nation, being mature enough to own our history warts and all.”

O'Malley said that in the earliest phases of European settlement in New Zealand, the newcomers “were hugely reliant on Māori, to feed them, to defend them, to build their homes and roads”.

“Pākehā wouldn't have survived in this country without the active support of Māori, and they knew that as well. But as settler numbers surged after 1840 those newcomers increasingly came to expect that they could simply take what they wanted. Honourable relationships based on reciprocity and negotiation were swept away in favour of unbridled Pākehā hegemony [dominance].”

Up to 500 people took part in the Waipureku Waitangi commemoration at Farndon Park in Clive.

Hundreds met in the sunshine at the Atea a Rangi star compass for a 30 minute hīkoi along the riverbank to the park. There they were greeted by with a rousing haka pōwhiri from Hukarere and Te Aute college students.

A flotilla of waka taurua, canoes and Westshore Sea Scout dinghies accompanied the hīkoi along Te Awa o Mokotūāraro (formerly known as the Clive River).

A stellar line-up of speakers included law lecturer Dr Carwyn Jones, te reo champion Dr Jeremy Tātere MacLeod, former Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Chris Finlayson and Maori Curator MTG Te Hira Henderson. Both O'Malley and MacLeod appeared in person and other speakers recorded video presentations especially for the occasion.

Three Kahungunu rangatira, Te Hapuku, Hoani Waikato and Harawira Mahika Te Tātere, boarded the HMS Herald on June 24, 1840 and signed Te Tiriti.

Historian Vincent O'Malley has gained recognition and awards for his extensive research and publications on the New Zealand Wars. His key works include The Great War for New Zealand: Waikato 1800–2000 and the bestseller The New Zealand Wars/Nga Pakanga o Aotearoa. Voices from the New Zealand Wars/He Reo no nga Pakanga o Aotearoa won the 2022 Ockham New Zealand Book Award for non-fiction, and he received a Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement that same year. Since 1993 he has provided invaluable expert information to the Waitangi Tribunal for Treaty claims, including the Ahuriri Napier hospital claim.

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