'Stand together to protect what we have': What Waitangi Day means for a Samoan Māori woman

Waitangi Day always stirs up emotions for Valeria Gascoigne, a woman with both Samoan and New Zealand Māori parents.

"It's a celebration of being Māori and also Samoan and being proud of both; it's making me a bit emotional now," Gascoigne said.

She gets emotional for a few reasons - one being how she felt like she had three strikes against her when she was growing up.

The first for being a woman, a second for being Māori and a third for being Samoan.

But now she sees it as a triple threat or "superpower".

A superpower gifted to her by a 'superwoman', her mother and dawn raids era survivor Taupaū Makalita Edwards, 84, who has stage four lung cancer and is still fighting for justice for migrants.

For Gascoigne, Waitangi Day is always a time of reflection.

"It's such an important time for both our Pasifika communities and Māori to stand together to protect what we have as indigenous people of this land," she said.

This year she's been thinking about the pain colonisation caused her Samoan mother and New Zealand Māori father, who she said used to get beaten in school if he spoke his own language.

In light of this deep understanding between Samoans and Māori, Gascoigne is calling on the people of te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa to stand in solidarity with tangata whenua this Waitangi Day.

"Particularly with this new government, and the uproar around looking into Te Tiriti and re-wording some of the documents," she said.

For her, Te Tiriti means freedom.

"It secured our freedom as indigenous people.

[We had] rights to what was here well before colonisation came and that is worth fighting for and it is worth standing together as a Pacific region."

'Never forget who you are'

Instead of hitting the shops or playing games on their phones this long weekend, the children in Gascoigne's family will be learning about their whakapapa, making connections with both their Samoan and Māori roots.

This is an approach Gascoigne learnt from Dame Whina Cooper, a respected kuia (Māori elder), who worked for many years for the rights of her people.

Gascoigne spent parts of her childhood in Pangaru, Northland with Dame Whina.

"Never forget who you are," Dame Whina told her as a youngster.

"Always understand your turangawaewae, stand with complete confidence in who you are, know your whakapapa and the language will come," Valeria reminisces Dame Whina's wise words today, soaking in her 'superwoman' Samoan mother's strength on their family holiday.