65 Human Rights Commission With Queen Elizabeth II attending, Waitangi Day was a gala occasion drawing thousands of spectators. Protesters organised by Te Kawariki, a new northern vanguard, were present but not with the numbers of the early-1980s. Anglican Bishop of Aotearoa, Whakahuihui Vercoe, chosen to perform the blessing because of his conservative reputation, surprised officials and protesters alike, with a speech that encapsulated all there was to say about the Treaty. Met by the jeers and chants of the protesters clustered behind a police cordon, Bishop Vercoe stood to speak: One hundred and fifty years ago, a compact was signed, a covenant was made between two people. But since the signing of that treaty, you, our partners have marginalized us. You have not honoured the Treaty. The language of this land is yours; the custom is yours, the media by which we tell the world who we are, are yours. What I have come here for is to renew the ties that made us a nation in 1840. I don’t want to debate the Treaty; I don’t want to renegotiate the Treaty. I want the Treaty to stand firmly as the unity, the means by which we are made one nation. The Treaty is what we are celebrating. It is what we are trying to establish so that my tino-rangatiratanga is the same as your Kāwanatanga. And so, I have come to Waitangi to cry for the promises that you made and for the expectations our tūpuna (ancestors) had 150 years ago. And so, I conclude, as I remember the songs of our land, as I remember the history of our land, I weep here on the shores of the Bay of Islands (New Zealand Herald, 7 February 1990). When he finished both protesters and officials were silent. The Fiscal Envelope (1994) Encouraged by the relative success of the sesquicentennial, official celebrations remained at Waitangi. An uneasy peace reigned. Meanwhile, tensions were building. Tribes were unhappy with the way the Crown had finalised the Sealord’s Fisheries Deal (New Zealand Herald, 7 February 1990). The first Treaty settlements over land losses at Ōrākei and Waiheke Island were significantly smaller than the losses and the strict limits on its resources restrained the Waitangi Tribunal (Kelsey, 1990, p. 127). The bubble burst in 1994, with the release of Crown Proposals for the Settlement of Treaty of Waitangi Claims. Colloquially termed the ‘Fiscal Envelope’, the proposals planned to settle all known and unknown Treaty claims for $1 billion. Apart from Tainui, who were signing the first settlement under the new proposals, Māori opposition was universal, the proposed fiscal limit represented a paltry percentage of Māori losses since 1840. Te Kawau Mārō, a group of Auckland Māori students were representative of an emerging generation of indigenous protesters steeped in the theory of decolonisation, anti-racism, and wanting selfdetermination for Māori. They coordinated protests at the University of Auckland, outside the High Court, the Asian Development Conference, and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, which included making an impromptu presentation of a rangatiratanga flag to Nelson Mandela. In January 1995, 1,000 delegates to the Hīrangi Hui of the newly formed and Māori funded Tā Hepi Te Heuheu-led Māori Congress, unanimously opposed the ‘Fiscal Envelope’ as racist and unjust. The National government rejected an offer to meet, describing the Congress as ‘misguided’. Tensions boiled over at Waitangi. Tame Iti stomped on the New Zealand flag, showed his bottom, and spat with aplomb in the direction of the Governor-General and Prime Minister Jim Bolger. Police arrested a young Māori woman for throwing a t-shirt to the Queen. Hinewhare Harawira was jailed for spitting at the Queen. Hone Harawira and government official Wira Gardiner wrestled across the marae. Protest flags were hoisted on the Treaty House grounds. The protesters had won an emphatic victory and the National government, like Labour a decade earlier, moved official ceremonies to Government House for the next three years (Walker, 2004, pp. 303-304). The Crown pressed forward with the Fiscal Envelope holding a series of consultation hui around the country. Māori considered the policy racist and vehemently rejected the proposal. Northern tribes sent a clear message to the Crown cancelling the hui at Mangamuka. At Tauranga, a challenging warrior threw down a copy of the proposal and stomped on