This year's record-breaking Waitangi celebrations drew 80,000 people to the Treaty grounds over four days, half that on Waitangi Day alone.
With the dust settling on the event's biggest turnout in decades, the sense of unity and anger among many Māori will linger long after the Treaty Principles legislation is gone.
In this week's Focus on Politics, Political Reporter Anneke Smith examines the coalition government's performance at a Waitangi Day for the history books.
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OPINION: This is a transcript of Audrey Young’s subscriber-only Premium Politics newsletter. To sign up, click on your profile at nzherald.co.nz and select.
I'm pleasantly surprised - aren’t you? - by how things went at Waitangi this year.
There were no dildos, no mud, no manhandling, there were no ugly scenes