"I didn't feel in the slightest bit threatened. There was a very heavy police presence. I'm not angry about the situation. I just see it as a wasted opportunity."
Mr Harawira said he "hated to say it" but he admired Mr Key for choosing to be the "bigger man".
"In my view he is to be respected, that in the face of opposition - some of it quite strident - he chooses to come back year after year."
However, he supported the protesters' rights to have their say, and said those in the public eye learned to deal with taunts, he said.
"Well, 30, 40 years ago we were doing the same thing from exactly the same place. It's not like these people are doing anything new ... It's how they feel.
"When all the key statistics of health, education, justice and employment and welfare show that you have actually gone backwards in the last three years, a little name-calling is to be expected."
Dr Sharples said he was hurt at being personally targeted, especially when he had put his "job on the line" over the deletion of a Treaty clause from pending legislation.
He also fired a broadside at Mana Party protesters, who also disrupted the powhiri from outside the marae grounds.
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters was sitting with Ngapuhi speakers on the marae as surging protesters tried to force their way onto the forecourt.
They were held back, largely by Maori wardens. One, Rawiri Nathan, held three back as police aided other wardens.
A news photographer left with a bloody forehead after his camera was pushed into his face.
Mr Peters and Ngapuhi kaumatua condemned the protesters' actions.
"I thought the way the protesters behaved was a disgrace because this is a national celebration day," the NZ First leader said. "Protest is always legitimate but not when it's carried on at the expense of the freedoms and rights of the rest of the people here."
Through the noise, Ngapuhi speaker John Komene welcomed Mr Key. Afterwards, he told the Herald he was sick that a small number of protesters could disrupt the whole powhiri.
"I was disgusted with these young people doing that. This sort of stuff [protesting on the marae] all finished long ago and now they're starting it up. They're trampling on the kaumatua and the tikanga of the marae."
Mr Komene said police told him they would arrest the protesters. "I said, 'No, please don't.' But next time I want them to take the loudspeaker off [them] to stop that screaming."
The country's top Maori police officer, Superintendent Wally Houmaha, called the protest "disgraceful" and the "height of rudeness", but said no one would face charges.
Ngapuhi leaders needed to do something about the Popata brothers, he said, because on a private marae, police could step in only if personal safety was threatened.
