As you'll know by breathless media reports, the old battle-axe Titewhai Harawira took the country to the brink of disaster just as the Prime Minister and other dignitaries were about to arrive at the lower Waitangi marae.

On the way to Waitangi we stopped at a coffee bar in Whangarei. The attendant said he had grown up in the Bay of Islands but wouldn't go where we were going.

A group of immigrants chose Waitangi Day to become New Zealand citizens. Reporters Vaimoana Tapaleao and Kieran Campbell met some of the new New Zealanders.

John Key and David Shearer have both voiced support for a four-year parliamentary term - but the change will require public buy-in to happen.

Nations nearly always find their pride in their origins - a migration, a revolution, a war of independence. New Zealand, possibly uniquely in the world, can find it in a treaty. A treaty of equals.

Waitangi Day remains an annual reminder of the 173-year Crown-Maori relationship - a relationship that is still very much a live subject in the New Zealand Courts.

A UMR Research poll commissioned by the Human Rights Commission has found fewer than a quarter of New Zealanders agree the relationship is healthy.

Ngapuhi kuia Titewhai Harawira and Ani Taurua are both vowing to bring the Prime Minister on to Te Tii Marae today at Waitangi.

David Shearer hopes to make Waitangi Day a day of celebrations rather than angst by moving the New Years' Honours to that day and issuing a ream of awards.

Labour leader David Shearer has claimed to be putting in a lot of work with Maori, but in a new poll only one third of Maori who supported Labour knew he was the party's leader.

The Waitangi Tribunal has recommended a settlement package for Far North iwi Ngati Kahu totalling $42.518 million.

The sale of power shares would create barriers to the Government's ability to provide redress for Maori rights, Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias says.

The Maori Council says key principles behind its 1987 Lands case victory apply with greater force over its current bid to delay the sale of Mighty River Power.

The Maori Council's final bid to delay the Government's flagship asset sales policy until Maori water claims are dealt with.

The departing head of the Maori Development Ministry says Maori business has transformed in the past decade and iwi are no longer considered a risk to the NZ economy.

The Prime Minister was never more wrong last year than when he declared the Government could ignore a recommendation of the Waitangi Tribunal.

A funding squeeze could destabilise the Waitangi Tribunal's Te Paparahi o Te Raki stage 2 inquiry into Ngapuhi claims for settlement of Treaty grievances, the tribunal has been warned.

Two Bay of Plenty iwi have been given a multimillion-dollar treaty settlement for the suffering they endured when the Crown brought war to the region in the 1860s.

I was surprised to read in Deborah Coddington's recent Herald column that the Treaty of Waitangi is New Zealand's founding document. Of course some New Zealanders mistakenly believe that is the case.

For many Pakeha, the Treaty of Waitangi is an exclusively Maori domain.