This Waitangi Day, a delegation of NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi leadership and Te Rūnanga o ngā Kaimahi Māori o Aotearoa members travelled up North to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds to share korero with workers from all across the motu.
NZCTU Vice President Māori Aubrey Wilkinson attended, along with CTU President Sandra Grey.
What an amazing experience! I had the honour of attending this event as Vice President Māori of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi. We managed to secure a site as a base of operations for our team to spread our messaging over two days. Our messaging? We are Union! We stand shoulder to shoulder with Māori! Let’s vote this Government out!
Running our operation over the two days was bloody hard work, coupled with long hours of engagement. The people! Oh my god the people! Thousands of exuberant, proud, excited, engaging individuals. Our team spent what seemed like endless hours of korero and whakarongo with so many whānau, individuals, and groups. I can state that 99.5% of people were excited with our three pou. Unions hard! Solidarity with Māori! Vote to change this Government!
The atmosphere over the two days was electric with plenty of positive anticipation. It was clear that people came to Waitangi to experience and celebrate a significantly historic occasion of Aotearoa. The unity, appreciation, and respect that people held for each other was stunning to witness. Smiles everywhere you went.
Other CTU affiliated unions were present over the two days. PPTA, TEU, Pulp and Paper, NZ Nurses Organisation, NZEI Te Riu Roa, PSA, and DWU, as well as union members from across the country.
We certainly drove home the message that we are a combined union movement supporting Māori for a fair and just Aotearoa. Unions do this for workers, why not for everyone! Here’s to a better Aotearoa Whānau!!
Aubrey Wilkinson
Vice President Māori
Aubrey’s union journey began with the Meat Workers Union in Rangiuru, followed by the Electrical Workers Union in Tauranga, the PSA at Huntly Power Station, and finally the Rail and Maritime Transport Union (RMTU) at the Port of Tauranga, where he has worked as a container crane driver since 1987. Aubrey has served as RMTU National President from 2012 . He was elected as Vice President Māori of the NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi in 2025.
At Waitangi in 2026, one thing came through loud and clear: working people want their whānau and communities to thrive. They want decent jobs, dignity at work, and a future built together. They want Te Tiriti honoured.
You could hear it in the voices of everyone there. The school principal, and the guy who mows lawns. Parents, social workers, hairdressers, forestry workers. People in work, people between jobs. While they live different lives and have different stories, what was clear was that they had more in common. What everyone could agree on was a shared belief that we’re stronger when we stand together and get on with the mahi.
That’s what kotahitanga feels like in real life. You could feel it in the early morning karakia and karanga drifting across the waters. In the handshakes, the hugs, the hongi between people who may have just met, but recognised something familiar in each other. Kotahitanga is there in the challenging korero, focused on understanding each other, not tearing each other down. It’s expressed by those giving free fruit to tamariki or performing health checks for the elderly. With care, freely given.
But that’s not always the way the story gets told. Political division makes better headlines. Political drama is easier to sell. But it’s not the truth of who we are, or how change actually happens. Politicians argue and media too often focuses on conflict. But they don’t get to decide or tell us that we hate each other.
What I heard people talked about at Waitangi were the pressures they live with every day. Pay that doesn’t stretch far enough, schools under strain, housing that’s out of reach. I heard a sense that the system is tilted toward those who already have the most. And just as importantly, they talked about solutions. Fairer rules and wages people can live on. A future shaped by collective effort, not the interests of a few.
Kotahitanga isn’t just something we feel once a year. It’s something we practise daily when we listen, when we work together, when we refuse to be divided, and when we take action side by side.
That’s how we build a future where every whānau can thrive.
Sandra Grey