It is a place New Zealand prime ministers and politicians have feared to tread.

The commemorative ceremony at Waitangi on New Zealand’s national day – which marks the signing of the treaty between the British crown and the country’s largest tribe, Ngāpuhi, in 1840 – has become synonymous with protest and acrimony.

In 2016 the prime minister at the time, John Key, was a no-show due to security concerns over protesters. His successor, Bill English, followed suit in 2017, after the government minister Steven Joyce was hit with a sex toy the year before.

As far back as 1990, Queen Elizabeth was greeted with a mixture of cheering and boos, as well as having a black T-shirt thrown at her by a young Māori woman.



But this year, with Labour’s Jacinda Ardern at the helm, change is afoot in Northland, with an altogether different scene unfolding.

Ardern, who announced she was pregnant to a surprised nation three weeks ago, was greeted by a staunch Māori activist, Titewhai Harawira, dressed in white. Harawira reached from her wheelchair for the prime minister’s hand to escort her on to treaty grounds; the same woman who reduced the then Labour leader, Helen Clark to tears with harsh words on Waitangi Day in 1998.

Jacinda Ardern cooks breakfast on a BBQ following the Waitangi Day service. Photograph: Phil Walter/Getty Images

Ardern has already shaken things up at the most sacred site in New Zealand, staying for an unprecedented five days in the far north – the longest visit of any prime minister.

She has spent the time talking with tribal leaders and community groups, as well as eating a picnic lunch with local schoolchildren. She also donned an apron to fry eggs and bacon for close to 1,000 people alongside her ministers – in stark contrast to the usual formal breakfast for dignitaries only, held in a hotel.

Ngāpuhi have shown respect to Ardern by allowing her to speak on the marae (meeting ground) – the first female prime minister to be granted that right – and also invited her to bury the placenta of her baby on tribal grounds, an offer the PM and her partner, Clarke Gayford, are considering.

Such a different vibe this Waitangi. It’s almost like all you need to do is listen and be respectful of historical grievance for ppl to feel reassured and not throw stuff at you. WHO COULD HAVE PREDICTED SUCH A THING?! — Leonie Hayden (@sharkpatu) February 5, 2018

The couple were also given wahakura – a type of baby basket – by local weavers to cocoon their baby safely while it sleeps.

PM gifted wahakura for her baby when walking around the stalls in Waitangi. pic.twitter.com/gw1bN1XaNG — Shannon Haunui (@SHaunui) February 5, 2018

“Something has changed,” declared the New Zealand Herald on its front page.

“Protest was absent from Waitangi yesterday, and you don’t need to have a view on the rights or wrongs of the protests there, year after year, to recognise that history is alive and progressing,” wrote the Herald’s Simon Wilson.

Assistant commissioner Wally Haumaha, New Zealand’s police deputy chief executive of Māori, Pasifika and ethnic services, told the Herald it was the best Waitangi commemorations he had attended in more than a decade.

“I was here in the days of protest around the pole, cops everywhere, and today I am so overjoyed. I can retire gracefully and know that we saw this day where the government was treated with respect and dignity,” he said.

Jacinda Ardern holds hands with Titewhai Harawira. Photograph: Phil Walter/Getty Images

An estimated 1,500 people attended the celebrations on treaty grounds, thought to be the largest crowd in decades, with some travelling from as far afield as the South Island and Australia to attend.

Despite the prime minister’s youth, her government’s commitment to improving the relationship with Māori hit the right note at Waitangi, and the coalition’s fleet of Māori ministers helped pave the way for a peaceful visit, with both the deputy prime minister, Winston Peters, and Labour’s deputy leader, Kelvin Davis, Māori men who hail from Northland.

Somehow the partnership depicted on the NZ coat of arms seems much more meaningful this Waitangi Day pic.twitter.com/ldAVm7v03X — Jess Berentson-Shaw (@DrJessBerentson) February 5, 2018

“We’ve got a very, very young country and a very, very young leader and that combination ... is going to be dynamite for this country,” said the Ngāpuhi leader, Sonny Tau.

Despite the lack of protest, Ardern said she was not afraid of robust meetings or disagreement, and asked the people gathered to hold her government to account, particularly regarding their commitments to lift Māori children out of poverty, create more jobs and reduce the high incarceration rate of Māoris.

The first 49 seconds of her speech were delivered in te reo, the Māori language, a skill she said she would like to improve.

“One day I want to be able to tell my child that I earned the right to stand here, and only you can tell me when I have done that,” she said.