A gun salute honouring Queen Elizabeth's ascending to the throne has come under fire from a Wellington city councillor, who has called for organisers to think about the purpose of these celebrations.

On Tuesday, the New Zealand Defence Force announced it would be firing a 21-gun salute at Pt Jerningham saluting battery on February 6. The site is at Roseneath Memorial Park.

Salutes honouring the Royal Family have been planned from February to June and a 21-gun salute will also occur at Waitangi on February 6. According to the New Zealand Defence Force, gun salutes grew from a naval tradition – a ship would fire its cannons to show its guns were empty, letting people know it had no hostile intent.

Wellington City Councillor Tamatha Paul​ said she was concerned about how the salute was “centring colonisation on a day that is supposed to reflect on the foundations of our country, which is built on Te Tiriti o Waitangi”.

Paul was in favour of getting rid of gun salutes entirely and asked people to think about “the mass carnage that occurred when guns came onto this whenua”.

“Let's have a conversation on the purpose of what they will be serving.”

Waitangi Day was not the Queen's Birthday weekend, and Paul said she was not sure what the point was of the salute.

“The whole salute itself is really aggressive; it shows the dominance of the Crown when it's meant to be a day of partnership,” Paul said.

“We really need to reflect on the purpose and function of these celebrations that seek to tell us about the society we live in. We don't have a day of observance for Parihaka and Matariki is only recently becoming an official public holiday – these salutes aren't unique to New Zealand.”

Vini Olsen-Reeder​, senior lecturer in Māori Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, said it was “pretty abhorrent” for the defence force to have a separate occasion that had nothing to do with Waitangi Day.

“My feelings are as a Māori and Pākehā person – I take my dual ancestry really seriously ... the whole idea around Waitangi Day is thinking about the role our ancestors played,” Olsen-Reeder said.

He said Waitangi Day was a celebration for some but also a day of mourning and reflection.

“It's about acknowledging we have Waitangi Day partly due to transgressions and things some of our ancestors did that weren’t good – and some of those transgressions were carried out under the gun of the Queen.”

There were other ways and days to celebrate the Queen and Olsen-Reeder felt the New Zealand Defence Force’s actions to do a gun salute was problematic and a “deliberate erasure” of Waitangi Day.

The lecturer had contacted the New Zealand Defence Force.

“We have Waitangi Festival at Waitangi Park and I think it's a bit sad that those people down there at midday will sit there and listen to guns being fired."

He hoped the New Zealand Defence Force would take the concerns raised seriously and either postpone or cancel the event.

Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira Incorporated chief executive Helmut Modlik​ said he welcomed New Zealanders asking questions about what they wanted to do and how they wanted to acknowledge events.

It was important to remember and acknowledge past events but how that was done was open to discussion for New Zealanders, he said.

Port Nicholson Settlement Block Trust has been approached for comment.

Wellington City Councillor Jill Day, who holds the Māori partnerships portfolio, said it was the right time to have a discussion about the appropriateness of 21-gun salutes in 2021.

“Many things that have been acceptable in the past, no longer are. Times are changing and we need to be willing to adapt," Day said.

“In the past speaking Te Reo Māori in schools was prohibited, corporal punishment in schools was normal practice and women weren’t allowed in pubs; it is only right that we reflect on community objections to 21-gun salutes.

“I think that it is important that we have a community conversation about this. It is appropriate to question what we do and why, and that we check whether things are still appropriate.”

In a statement, a New Zealand Defence Force spokesman said the Queen’s accession had been marked in New Zealand and around the Commonwealth since the death of her father.

It was an annual, long-standing task, the spokesman said.

“The 21-gun salute on the accession anniversary is carried out on behalf of the New Zealand Government,” the spokesman said.

“It is coincidental that the anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s accession occurs on 6 February, on the same day as Waitangi Day.”

The Minister of Defence's office referred Stuff to the New Zealand Defence Force as this was an “operational” mattter.