Expats muse over Waitangi Day

3.00pm - By JODI O'CALLAGHAN

SYDNEY - It's Waitangi Day in New Zealand today, but for thousands of New Zealanders living away from home it is not a public holiday. And do they still care?

February 6 may be our national day -- marking the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi -- but it is also a complicated issue that polarises opinion every year over the true meaning of the treaty, and how the day should be celebrated, if at all.

New Zealanders living on the other side of the world or closer to home in Australia encapsulate how the day is regarded at home.

Having lived abroad for 20 years and in Australia for four of those, Rotorua-born Dale Eru said she does usually find herself thinking about what is happening at home on February 6.

"While it is a significant day for New Zealand I always wonder if there will be protests and fights on a day that should be celebrating the future of such a diverse country."

Wellingtonian Leigh Catley has lived in Sydney for a year, and remains keen to acknowledge Waitangi Day.

"I think about New Zealand more on Waitangi Day, and what it stands for, than I did when I lived in NZ," she said.

"Considering how alike Australians and Kiwis are supposed to be, I don't think there could be two more different national days than Waitangi Day and Australia Day.

"Australians celebrate the 'now' of their nation, while New Zealanders spend Waitangi Day trying not to think about the past, but at the same time really acknowledging and accepting what it represents. To me Waitangi Day highlights the differences between the two countries."

While Australia Day is awash with community events and government-funded celebrations, the New Zealand Consulate-General in Sydney said nothing specific was planned for the large expatriate community.

"In places like Bangkok or Paris you have a reasonably defined community. There's so many New Zealanders here it wouldn't be easy," said Consul-General Peter Heenan.

The Australia-New Zealand Business network holds an annual Waitangi Day Ball in Sydney and Maori groups also hold cultural displays.

There are also New Zealanders happy to let the day slip by without much acknowledgement at all.

Nevin O'Hara has lived in Sydney for six years, and to him the day is nothing more than a good reason to have a drink.

"I'm not very patriotic, I get annoyed with Parliament at home and all the politics. I might think about home briefly but for me it's more of an excuse to have a beer."

Cantabrian Gail Sullivan, who has lived in London for several years, was ashamed to admit the day meant "very little in a cultural sense" but, "I definitely think of home on the day.

"I tend to seek out a pub that will be playing NZ music, then get drunk, dance like a moron and get emotional over Christchurch -- something that I don't do the other 364 days of the year."

For transplanted Southlander John Tulloch, 2004 will be his first Waitangi Day spent overseas -- in New Delhi.

"It was never a big deal for me while I was in New Zealand as I nearly always seemed to be working anyway," he said.

"I guess being one of the few New Zealanders in the midst of a billion Indians I will have a beer and bore anyone who cares to listen with the details.

"I imagine no one here knows much about it. Personally I feel Anzac Day has more importance for many Kiwis and provides more of a unified focal point for New Zealanders to reflect on 'nationhood'."

- NZPA