History of NWW

A brief history of Network Waitangi Whangārei, by Moea Armstrong

(Adapted from Moea's introduction to our 40th Anniversary Webinar, delivered by Prof Margaret Mutu on 9 June 2025.)

Project Waitangi was initiated in 1985 by the Reverends Bob Scott and Sir Paul Reeves, to educate non-Māori about the Treaty in the lead up to the 150th anniversary of the signing in 1990.  Why? Because it is said that “Māori never forgot, but Pākehā never knew.”

This was not the beginning of Pākehā activism in the 1900s. In the 1950s, Ruth Ross did her research on the Māori text, and Dick Scott wrote about Parihaka.  In 1959, the Communist Party instigated the Citizens All Black Tour Association, in response to South Africa’s ban on Māori players.  They collected an amazing 150,000 signatures on the “No Maoris [sic], No Tour” petition, and the following year brought anti-racism activist Paul Robeson to tour New Zealand.

Citizens Association for Racial Equality (CARE) and Halt All Racist Tours (HART) followed, and many other groups both Māori and non-Māori began their work in the 70s and 80s, notably the Waitangi Action Committee. The leaders of our education movement, Mitzi Nairn, Joan MacDonald, and Joan Cook, worked closely with Titewhai Harawira and others on that committee.

We acknowledge the founding members of Project Waitangi in Whangārei, the Reverends Joan and Russ Cook, Don Ross, Steve Baylis and Janine Boyd, and Pat and Les Gray. Like many of the other groups enlisted to provide Treaty education regionally, this was an alliance of church people, unionists, feminists, artists, community workers, and adult educators.

Pat had previously been a member of Women Against Racism, and Joan and Russ had been part of the Anglican Church’s Treaty-based constitutional change process. The Whangārei Community Arts Council umbrella-ed the group.

After 1990, Project Waitangi morphed into an independent network, with regionally autonomous groups that met annually at the Pākehā and Tauiwi Anti-Racism and Treaty Workers Gatherings.  Les Gray drew the Whangārei group’s logo, the Celtic Aberlemno Stone, whose seven spirals symbolise the inner stillness within us all – embraced by Mt Manaia, guardian of the Whangārei Harbour.

Les also painted the “Hands Across the Breach” banner that was taken to Wellington on the 2004 Foreshore and Seabed hikoi, I drew our much-photographed sign, “Māori sovereignty is good for all NZers”, and Jette de Jong sewed the latest, “Tangata Tiriti standing with Tangata Whenua” emblem.

As at our 40th anniversary in 2025, there are a plethora of differently named roopu, both virtual and place-based, doing excellent anti-racism and Tiriti education. A list of these groups can be found in the Appendices of our popular booklet, Treaty of Waitangi – Questions & Answers.

The sheer diversity and growth in our movement is astonishing and gratifying, and hopefully the combined work is reaching out to a critical mass of New Zealanders.