a hangi for Waitangi Day

 

 

Last Monday was Waitangi Day and we got together with some friends and put on a hangi. I want to say that it started in the darkness of dawn early on Waitangi Day morning, when I got up just after the fire had been lit and the air was filled with the cackle and crackle of flames, but it didn't. It started the day before, when the pit was dug in the heat of the afternoon.

We've done something on Waitangi Day for a few years now, but this was the first hangi. And it was the first time we had this many people on our property, over a hundred. That in itself was exciting, because it's exactly how we see this place working. As somewhere for people to come and enjoy. There were kids all over the place, running around everywhere, in and out of the house, jumping on the tramp, riding up and down the driveway. And it was a good mix of people, many of them from church, plus friends and family. I got to meet a filmmaker from Shanghai, how cool is that. I love meeting interesting people.

But mostly it was about remembering and celebrating the history of our country, something we don't always do well. While angry and divisive voices are still calling for Waitangi Day to be abandoned, we all simply got on with celebrating. Celebrating being us.