Protests expected over NZ indigenous policies on national day holiday

Crowds at this weekend’s anniversary of New Zealand’s founding document signing in the town of Waitangi are expected be their biggest in 30 years as indigenous Maori plan to discuss and protest proposed policies that some say will disadvantage them.
The main celebrations will be held on Feb. 6, marking the day in 1840 when the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between the British Crown and more than 500 Maori chiefs.
Politicians, Maori leaders and members of the public are set to start arriving in the small seaside town in the north of the North Island on Saturday.
Pita Tipene, chairman of the Waitangi National Trust board which organises the event, said they expected upwards of 60,000 people to attend Waitangi Day events. That would make it the largest such gathering, which includes concerts and stalls as well as political meetings and speeches, since at the least 1990.