Up to 10,000 Maori and non-Maori descended on the Waikato town of Ngaruawahia for the talks on Saturday,NZ media outlet Stuff said,quoting local tribe leaders,after the king issued a royal proclamation – the first in a decade – for the event. It was billed as the “national hui[meeting] for unity”.
The late Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip met the current king’s mother,Queen Te Atairangikaahu,at the same traditional meeting grounds,near Hamilton on the North Island,in 1953.
Ngira Simmonds,the king’s chief of staff,said earlier that the gathering would discuss how the Maori translation of the Treaty of Waitangi could be upheld.
The 1840 treaty is New Zealand’s founding document and underpins claims of Maori sovereignty.
Ahead of the meeting,political leaders warned the prime minister against interfering with the treaty. Luxon did not attend but sent Maori Affairs Minister Tama Potaka and Northcote MP Dan Bidois.