Australia Day and Waitangi Day

These two important holidays in our home countries have their own specific flair and flavour. Because both days are very close on the calendar, and given that the DUCW represents both countries, we celebrate them together in late January or early February.

ANZAC Day is also considered a day of national significance for both countries.

Australia Day

For Aussies all around the world, Australia Day is celebrated on January 26th every year. Down under, it comes at the height of summer and is accompanied with parades, much flag waving and other forms of national recognition. Here in Winnipeg, however, we celebrate in the middle of winter with a fun and festive gathering of members, friends and family.

Australia Day is the official national day of Australia. Celebrated annually on January 26, the date commemorates the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove, NSW, in 1788, and the proclamation at that time of British sovereignty over the eastern seaboard of Australia (then known as New Holland).

Although it was not known as Australia Day until more than a century later, records of celebrations on January 26 date back to 1808, with the first official celebration of the formation of New South Wales held in 1818. It is marked by the presentation of the Australian of the Year Awards on Australia Day Eve, announcement of the Australia Day Honours list and addresses from the Governor-General and Prime Minister. It is an official public holiday in every state and territory of Australia, unless it falls on a weekend in which case the following Monday is the public holiday. With community festivals, concerts and citizenship ceremonies, the day is celebrated in large and small communities and cities around the nation. Australia Day has become the biggest annual civic event in Australia. [Wikipedia]

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Waitangi Day

Waitangi Day is celebrated by New Zealanders around the world on February 6 each year. It is a special day that recognises the signing of an important treaty between white settlers and the Māori people who lived there before European contact. This holiday has the name of the treaty rather than the country’s name, which is an appropriate yet understated way to mark their national day.

Waitangi Day (wye-tang-ee) commemorates a significant day in the history of New Zealand. It is a public holiday held each year on 6 February to celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand’s founding document, on that date in 1840.

The Treaty of Waitangi was signed on 6 February 1840, in a marquee erected in the grounds of James Busby’s house (now known as the Treaty house) at Waitangi in the Bay of Islands. The Treaty made New Zealand a part of the British Empire, guaranteed Māori  rights to their land and gave them the rights of British subjects. There are differences between the English version and the Māori translation of the Treaty, which ever since 1840 has led to debate over exactly what was agreed to at Waitangi. Māori have generally seen the Treaty as a sacred pact, while for many years Pākehā (the Māori word for New Zealanders of predominantly European ancestry) ignored it. By the early twentieth century, however, some Pākehā were beginning to see the Treaty as their nation’s founding document and a symbol of British humanitarianism. Unlike Māori, Pākehā have generally not seen the Treaty as a document with binding power over the country and its inhabitants. In 1877 Chief Justice James Prendergast declared it to be a ‘legal nullity’, a position it held until the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975, when it regained significant legal standing. [Wikipedia]

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See also ANZAC Day