Google Doodle celebrates New Zealand public holiday Waitangi Day

Google has dedicated its 6 February Doodle to Waitangi Day 2024, the national day of Aotearoa, which is the Māori name for New Zealand.

Waitangi Day is celebrated every year on 6 February to mark the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi almost 200 years ago in 1840, when British representatives and over 500 Māori chiefs signed what is largely regarded as New Zealand’s founding document.

The treaty established that the Māori would cede sovereignty of New Zealand to Britain, the Māori would give the Crown exclusive rights to buy lands they wished to sell and the Maori would have full rights of ownership over their lands and possessions.

How this treaty has been interpreted over the years has caused debate. While for some, the day has been a holiday of recognition of the treaty, it has also been a point of debate over what place the treaty has in New Zealand in the modern day, according to New Zealand’s government history website.

The first Waitangi Day was held in 1934, and since then, annual ceremonies have grown larger with more extravagant celebrations, from speeches, diplomats and royals attending, theatrics, attracting thousands to Waitangi and having the ceremony screened on television.

However, the day had not been without protests, walkouts and boycotts throughout the decades surrounding sovereignty, race and identity issues.

In the 1980s, there was a call for Pākehā (white New Zealanders) for a greater acceptance of Māoritanga (Māori culture and their way of life), something that was seen as part of the 1840 treaty.

The treaty’s second article that agreed on sovereignty status was a point of focus of protests during the 1990s.

The government was keen to display the day as a unification of the different cultures and people throughout New Zealand, but protests still ensued throughout the decades over race relations and treaty issues.

The Waitangi Day Act of 1960 declared that 6 February would be known as Waitangi Day, but was not established as an official public holiday.

The government said that a public holiday would be too expensive and they wanted to keep divisiveness between people to a minimum. A paid public holiday would be too costly, and the government wanted to minimise any suggestion of divisiveness.

‘We should not think of ourselves as Maoris or pakehas, but rather as one people,’ prime minister Walter Nash said in 1960.

Eventually, a national holiday was granted from 1974 onwards, but it was called “New Zealand Day”; however, only a few years later, the Waitangi Day Act 1976 reinstated the name to Waitangi Day.

The artwork for this Google Doodle was illustrated by Canterbury-based artist Vincent Egan of Māui Studios in New Zealand, alongside designers and illustrators Madison Henry and Royce Southerland.

Mr Egan told Google that today’s topic is meaningful because it speaks to the people of the islands Te Ika-a-Māui and Te Waipounamu in New Zealand.

The illustration was an opportunity to show the different personalities of what he describes as their “collective home”.

The artist said that each character combines traits and attributes from people he has met throughout different events, from kapa haka cultural performances, mau rākau weaponry workshops or annual tribal celebrations.

Here, he has shown whānau and friends celebrating together at a kapa haka festival. The kapa haka is a traditional Maori dance performed by standing in rows.

Whānau is often translated to “family” but according to Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, the meaning is much more complex than a simple translation.

In Māori culture, whānau is based more on physical, emotional and spiritual dimensions that are part of being interconnected through tribes and sub-tribes, both living and dead. It is the idea that no matter where you are in the world, or whether you are alive or not, you are connected, and your bond stays strong.

Whānau is not restricted to family members; it can be extended to much larger groups of people.

Mr Egan wants this art piece to send the message of kotahitanga (unity) and use it as a tohu (sign) or a symbol of “how awesome we are as people when we come together”.