Mātakitaki Mai: Waitangi Day 2025 – With Whakaata Māori

Whakaata Māori has got you covered this Waitangi Day with a feast of premieres and dedicated programming to entertain, inform and educate on our national day. 

Immerse yourself in the history and wairua of Waitangi, from the whakapapa of protest and the evolution and transformation of Māori-Crown relations to the treaty experiences of our First Nations whānau in Canada (Treaty Road) and Australia (We Are Still Here). 

There are waiata, movies and documentaries and, for those wanting more, check out MĀORI+ for more dedicated programming, including Tame Iti’s documentary TE ĀTEA, all four episodes of the powerful NZ WARS series. 

Our Waitangi schedule begins at 5.00AM with Peter-Lucas Jones and Blake Ihimaera live from the Treaty grounds for WAITANGI 2025 - KA HAO TE RANGATAHI. They are joined by Te Aorere Pēwhairangi and native diva, Miss Kihi in a broadcast that also features live interviews and performances by the National Youth Choir and Jaedyn Randell.  Māori media hubs will report throughout on events being held around around the motu. 

Waitangi 2025 – Ka Hao te Rangatahi is funded by Te Māngai Pāho, produced by Cinco Cine Film Productions and Te Hiku Media in collaboration with the Waitangi National Trust. 

Premiere programming includes HĪKOI – SPEAKING OUR TRUTH. Twenty years after the social movement that changed the political landscape of Aotearoa forever, Tāmati Rimene-Sproat retraces and unpicks the 2004 Foreshore and Seabed March. 

CANVASSING THE TREATY pairs up well-known New Zealand artists and challenges them to create a work representative of the Treaty of Waitangi – in three days. 

KARANGA RĀ – 50 YEARS OF THE WAITANGI TRIBUNAL traces the establishment and impact of an entity that has transformed the relationship between Māori and the Crown over the past five decades. 

Be inspired, invigorated, and informed with Whakaata Māori and MĀORI+ this Waitangi Day. 

COMING UP ON WAITANGI DAY 2025 

5.00AM: LIVE – The official broadcast of Waitangi Day commemorations from the Waitangi Treaty Grounds. In 2025, a particular focus will be on the thoughts and aspirations of young New Zealanders. 

10.00AM: WHETŪ MĀRAMA – BRIGHT STAR – The story of Sir Hekenukumai Busby and his significance to Te Ao Māori in rekindling our  wayfinding DNA. 

11.45AM: WAIATA ANTHEMS – SONGS OF FREEDOM – For Fly My Pretties' lead singer Barnaby Weir, translating his song 'Family Tree' becomes a vessel to process the grief of a severe connection to his mother's Māori whakapapa. 

12.00PM: OHMS! PROTEST! A CELEBRATION OF RESISTANCE – They were students, conscientious objectors, peace activists. Robert Reid and his activist mates set up ‘OHMS’ which did not stand for ‘On Her Majesty's Service’, but rather ‘Organisation to Halt Military Service’. They began a series of creative disruptive activities up and down Aotearoa to overthrow Compulsory Military Training. 

12.35PM: WAIATA ANTHEMS – Rising RnB singer Mikey Dam on translating his deeply personal song 'Somebody' into te reo Māori. 

12:50PM: CANVASSING THE TREATY – Well-known New Zealand artists from very different backgrounds are paired up and challenged to create a work representative of the Treaty of Waitangi, in only three days. 

2.15PM: WAIATA ANTHEMS – Lorde opens up about the controversial release of her new collection of waiata and what drove her to express her aroha for her homeland and its indigenous culture 

2.30PM: MURA O TE AHI – Hilarious 'debating' competition showcasing Māori humour and wit entirely in the Māori language. 

3.00PM: WAIATA ANTHEMS – Singer/songwriter Paige believes her late grandfather is her guardian angel and makes a pilgrimage to discover who he really was. 

3.15PM: TE ŌHĀKĪ – Renowned Māori artist, Whirimako Black unpacks issues around cultural reclamation and identity as she recreates her classic waiata, "Kei hea tōku reo", with artists who are on their own journey. 

4.15PM: LEGACY – The story of legendary Māori Band, Katchafire, and founding brothers Logan and Jordan Bell as they struggle to find their way through volatile creative differences and a changing music landscape that threatens to destroy the bonds of whanau, culture and politics in an uncertain COVID 19 environment. 

5:15PM: PREMIERE: HĪKOI – SPEAKING OUR TRUTH – It was the social movement that changed the political landscape of the country. Now, 20 years on, Tāmati Rimene-Sproat retraces and unpicks the 2004 Foreshore and Seabed March. 

6.20PM: WAIATA ANTHEMS – Tim Finn experiences the joys of translation of Six Months in a Leaky Boat. Fran Kora confronts his biggest fear about learning te reo Māori. 

6.55PM: KARANGA RĀ: 50 YEARS OF THE WAITANGI TRIBUNAL – 

7:30PM: THE CONVERT – A lay preachers violent past is soon drawn into question and his faith put to the test, as he finds himself caught in the middle of a bloody war between Māori tribes. 

9:00PM: PATU! – A startling documentary record of the mass civil disobedience that took place throughout New Zealand during the winter of 1981 in protest against a South African rugby tour.

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