The man, who described himself as an 82-year-old returned serviceman,
was removed from the Waitangi Day dawn ceremony after disrupting the service to protest.
Video / David Fisher
An elderly man has been removed from a morning service at Waitangi after interrupting official proceedings.
Shortly after a number of prayers were said in various languages, a kaumātua in the crowd stood up and asked for three minutes of time.
It appeared to be unplanned, as people on the stage started murmuring and speaking over him.
“All of these statutes in the Parliament of England assemble and all the dominions belonging in there too - and all of the laws and customs of this land,” he said.
“Therefore you know, there is a difference between statute and law. Law is made by the atua (god/ancestors). The law of gravity was not made by man...there’s three groups of people assembled here today.
“There is the elected public servants and there is the appointed public servants - with the emphasis on public servant - and there is the public.”
Paumea McKay is ushered away from the Waitangi dawn service after interrupting proceedings.
As the kaumātua continues, a speaker on a microphone talks over him.
A police officer, Mid North regional district commander Inspector Rick Whiu, is then seen approaching the man, whispering “matua” to him, and attempting to take him by the arm.
The kaumātua yanks his arm away and says “hands off” before trying to speak again: “Before this fella forces this 82-year-old kaumātua returned serviceman...”
Kaumātua Paumea McKay, 82, of Kaitaia. Photo / NZME
The crowd suddenly erupts into song, standing together to sing a waiata as the elderly man is approached by a second man in a bid to move him away.
The kaumātua later identified himself to the Herald as 82-year-old Paumea McKay, of Kaitaia.
He said he stood up in accordance with tikanga Māori to raise what he believed was the difference between law and statute.
McKay said he had served in the NZ Special Air Service for five years as a younger man.
The battle, he said, is not between Māori and Pākehā, but both against what he described as a “corrupt government”.
McKay made reference to police dragging him away from his seat in the service as a “tauiwi way of making you sit down”.
Not allowing kaumātua to speak ‘sad’
In the course of pulling the man from the crowd, police pushed media aside as some attempted to block those capturing the incident on video.
The incident was captured on Whakaata Māori’s livestream coverage of Waitangi Day, which was hosted by two commentators, including veteran Māori journalist Tini Molyneux.
Molyneux described the incident as “sad” and said the kaumātua should have been allowed to speak, acknowledging Māori protocol and cultural custom, and specifically because others had been allowed to speak also.
