Waitangi Treaty Grounds. File photo. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
More than 100 young Chinese New Zealanders will be travelling to Northland next month to attend Waitangi Day commemorations and pay respects to Chinese ancestors buried in Hokianga.
The trip is organised by the New Zealand Chinese Association.
President and former Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon said the trip would deepen the bond between Chinese and Māori.
The trip was organised so the younger generations of Chinese Kiwis to understand the experiences of tangata whenua, he said.
"We really want to be there and get our young people to better understand and live the live experiences of tangata whenua and support them in any cause that they need us to support."
The group will be visiting the site where the SS Ventnor sank in 1902 near the Hokianga harbour, while carrying the remains of 499 Chinese gold miners. Some of the miners' bones were buried by the local iwi alongside their own people after being discovered 118 years later.
Nathan Blundell, who will be joining the trip, said it would be a great chance to explore the shared values between Chinese and Māori.
"Hopefully during that time we'll be able to ... explore and celebrate those shared values of respecting your elders, heritage, whakapapa, kaitiakitanga, manaaki."
The SS Ventnor left Wellington in October 1902 carrying bodies back to China to their families. These men were mostly gold miners who had worked in the Otago, Greymouth area.
But the ship sank off the Hokianga Heads after striking a reef near Taranaki and trying to head north for repairs in Auckland.
Most of the crew made it ashore, but 13, including the captain, drowned.
The wreck of the Ventnor was initially located in 2012 by a documentary crew.